LIVING

Already a part of the human scenery around the city centre, locals sometimes refer to them as ‘top manta’, coined from the popular London clothing label Top Shop, as they move around with their big blankets or manta made into bag containers for their wares. They draw the most attention while running through metro stations or along the city streets, with police officers chasing them, usually in vain.

Often, these street sellers have reached Barcelona in the same way as the people we see featured regularly on the news here—economic refugees from Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria, among other sub-Saharan countries, who brave the high seas and starvation just to get to the Canary Islands, fighting for that one chance to enter what they refer to as ‘Fortress Europe’.

Members of S.O.S. Racismo, an association for the defense of human rights and anti-racism, think the authorities are not doing enough to solve the problem. “Fines for these people are just a response to this illegal activity. They [the authorities] can do better by offering a programme of work so that these people no longer have to sell illegal products on the street,” said Isabel Martínez, an S.O.S. Racismo spokeswoman.

Martínez recognised that the situation is further complicated by the fact that most of the top manta vendors arrive in the country illegally and do not have permits to work.

Despite this, she said, it is not so easy to conclude that it would have been better for them to stay in their respective countries, avoiding the risks of the boat ride, and a destiny in a foreign city selling products illegally.

“It is complicated to say exactly whether it is better for them to be here or not. For these people to really have a future, there must be a change in Spanish laws, with regards to giving them work contracts,  and a change in the laws of their countries as well, with regards to the means of how they get here. There must be a change in both.”