Albanian squat closed, Eritrean squat threatened

Albanian squat evicted illegally. It has been shelter to many Albanians for nearly a year. A court notice had been given to this abandoned hotel, but the owner had never come forward to pursue. But today it was closed illegally without a the final judgement of eviction ever being given.

Later three Albanians were arrested trying to enter a beach hut for shelter, having had to find somewhere new to sleep. About 40 huts have been opened recently.

The Eritrean squat has also been visited again, this time by a “safety commission”, and is also likely to be evicted soon. Its an overcrowded small crumbling town house with 40+ people from Eritrea living on top of each other in a few broken rooms in worse than poor conditions for over a year. But of course it is not a choice. If there was a better option people would go.

The farce of the ‘health and safety’ eviction is always that people are never re-located but instead forcibly made homeless again to live in worse conditions outside on the streets and more open to harassment by police and any passers by.