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ARCHIVED - Two dead following second fire at a Huelva migrant camp in three days
The fire destroyed 30 homes in the migrant camp of Lucena del Puerto, Huelva, Andalucia.
A man and a woman have died on the morning of May 19 following a fire at a camp for irregular migrants in Lucena del Puerto in Huelva.
The fire reportedly broke out in several homes in a shanty town near kilometre 11 of the A-486 at around 3 am before being put out at around 5.30 am.
According to the Huelva Provincial Firefighters Consortium and Andalucian unified emergency service, the blaze destroyed around 30 homes in the migrant camp known as El Bosque.
Health services had to treat one person for shock after two others died in the incident. Officers from the Local Police and Guardia Civil also attended the call-out, while members of the Infoca Plan and Red Cross provided food and blankets and a medical team.
Tensions between the Spanish authorities and irregular migrants have increased dramatically in recent days after around 8,000 migrants from Morocco forced their way into the Spanish city of Ceuta in North Africa yesterday, the flow across the border only stemmed when the government brought in the army.
Authorities have also been dealing with the number of migrants trying to make their way to Spain by boat, with officials intercepting 65 people from the coasts of Almeria last Saturday, May 15 alone, just a tiny fraction of the thousands of irregular migrants who enter Spain illegally in this fashion every year.
The problem of undocumented migrants, who are unable to work due to their status, has caused a number of migrant camps to crop up across the south of Spain, often with crowded conditions which can lead to issues such as fires and other safety concerns.
Migrants entering Spain are not permitted to work legally, so frequently end up living in appalling conditions, such as those in this camp, working illegally in the agricultural sector and only able to undertake menial low-paid jobs "on the black".
The Spanish government refuses to legalise them, holding the opinion that to do so would encourage even greater flows of illegal migrants into Spain.
The immigration issue is also the reason behind the meteoric rise of the far-right Vox political party in the last two years, with migration one of their core political topics. Yesterday Vox called on the regional government of Andalucía to "protect itself " against a potential repeat of the scenes which played out in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, thousands of migrants swimming around the sea defences which separate the Spanish territory from Morocco.
This is the second fire in three days in the province of Huelva, which is home to many irregular migrants who undertake the backbreaking day work tasks in the agricultural sector. On Sunday evening there was a similar fire in Palos de la Frontera, which affected 180 migrants living in similar conditions, with 60 per cent of their encampment damaged.
Humanitarian aid was given by the Cruz Roja in Huelva, the same organisation which gives medical aid to those intercepted out at sea by marine rescue services.
The fires in these migrant camps are not believed to have started accidentally.
The Spanish government has today pledged 30 million euros of direct aid to the Moroccan government to help them prevent illegal migration from their shores.
Images: Cruz Roja administering aid in Palos de la Frontera on Monday.
