Lorraine Williamson
In the heart of Valencia, just a short walk from busy cafés and cultural landmarks, dozens of tents and sleeping mats line the pavements. The makeshift camp has become home to people from across the globe — Colombia, Gambia, Morocco, Algeria, Bangladesh, Romania, and even Spain itself.
Many ended up here after the council cleared the Turia Gardens earlier this year, dismantling a settlement of more than 50 tents. Despite assurances of alternatives, aid groups say most residents were left with nowhere to go.
Institutions nearby, but out of reach
The location of the camp is striking. It sits between Jesús Maroto i González square and the cultural hub of La Beneficencia. Within sight are a municipal shelter and a migrant support centre. Yet the doors remain largely closed. Waiting times stretch to six months, leaving people trapped on the streets.
Each morning, police wake those sleeping rough, forcing them to pack up before the city comes alive. By nightfall, they return to the same spot, caught in a cycle of exhaustion and displacement.
Lives in suspension
Behind the statistics are lives shaped by uncertainty.
Lucía, from Colombia, has been homeless for three years. Caught in an endless bureaucratic battle, she cannot secure a residence permit and therefore cannot work. She drags her suitcase from place to place, acutely aware of the dangers faced by women on the streets. “I keep going by refusing to be pushed aside,” she says.
Bakary, 19, from Gambia, arrived in Spain by boat. He picked fruit in Catalonia before trying his luck in Valencia, but the harvest season is his only chance of work. He hopes to return north in September, though nothing is guaranteed.
Shelters at breaking point
Valencia offers around 1,000 shelter beds through a patchwork of municipal programmes and NGOs. But with demand outstripping supply, the system is stretched thin.
Even families with young children have been forced to sleep outside, according to Médicos del Mundo. Emergency services such as SAUS are designed to protect minors, yet campaigners say children are often left without urgent accommodation.
Politics over people
The crisis has ignited fierce political debate. Opposition councillor Maite Ibáñez (PSPV-PSOE) accuses the city’s PP and Vox-led government of cutting funding, dismantling social support networks, and turning poverty into a political weapon.
“Instead of strengthening services, they abolish coordination committees, reduce staff, and fuel a narrative of hate and criminalisation,” Ibáñez said. Compromís, another opposition party, has echoed her criticism, urging investment in housing and long-term solutions rather than short-term crackdowns.
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A city of contradictions
Valencia, a city celebrated for its architecture, festivals, and booming tourism, now faces an uncomfortable paradox. While millions of euros flow into urban renewal and cultural promotion, its most vulnerable residents sleep in tents under the glow of streetlamps.
Aid groups warn that the refugee and homeless crisis is no longer hidden — it is unfolding in plain sight in the centre of Spain’s third-largest city. Without structural change, the camps will keep growing, and the human stories behind them will remain a mirror of Europe’s wider failure to tackle migration and housing insecurity.
Source: Levante