Victor Fernando Meza spends his days working, but despite his efforts, his income falls short of covering the cost of renting a home in Madrid.
As night falls, the 45-year-old Peruvian man heads back to Barajas Airport, where he will once again spend the night.
On a hot evening in May, Meza arrived at the airport just before 9 pm, narrowly making it past security. Under a recently introduced rule, only passengers with boarding passes are permitted entry after this time — a move aimed at reducing the growing number of homeless individuals seeking refuge overnight.
This policy is a response to the increasing visibility of rough sleepers at Spain’s busiest airport. Photographs showing people lying on the floor with their belongings have stirred public concern and political finger-pointing. But for those like Meza, who have come to see the airport as a safer alternative to the streets or overcrowded shelters, the crackdown offers little hope.
“They should treat us like people, not animals,” Meza told AFP, adding that he simply wants to be left alone.
He accuses Aena, the state-run company overseeing Spanish airports, of failing to manage a worsening humanitarian issue — one that has also begun to emerge in other cities such as Barcelona, Malaga, Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca, and Tenerife.
Aena maintains that airports were never designed to accommodate large numbers of homeless individuals.
Meza believes airport security can distinguish between those who cause problems and those who don’t. “The ones who smoke, drink, and act out—those are the people they should remove. Not everyone,” he said.
He currently picks up moving jobs when he can and hopes to eventually secure an apartment with his brother.
However, finding affordable housing in Madrid is becoming increasingly difficult. According to property site Idealista, the average rent for a 60-square-metre flat has nearly doubled in the past decade — from around €690 to €1,300 per month — while access to social housing remains limited.
Living at the airport has worn on Meza. “People look down on you. There’s still a lot of racism here,” he said, noting his intention to return to Peru when he turns 50.
A similar scene is unfolding in Barcelona, where Zow, a 62-year-old construction worker from Mali, also spends nights at the airport.
He described the humiliation of being constantly stared at. “It’s awful,” he said. “Everyone looks at you like you’re nothing.”
A survey carried out in March by a Catholic charity counted 421 rough sleepers at Madrid’s airport. Most were men, and half had been there for more than six months. Strikingly, 38 per cent reported having jobs, and almost all left the terminal during the day.
The issue has highlighted a power struggle among the various authorities responsible for homelessness. While Aena is under the control of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist government, it claims the city holds the legal duty to provide basic care for vulnerable individuals.
Madrid’s conservative mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, disagrees, arguing that the central government is ultimately responsible through its oversight of Aena.
The airport asserts that a large number of the people sleeping there are foreign nationals who ought to be handled by the nation’s asylum system.
In an attempt to resolve the impasse, the parties have agreed to commission a study to count and assess those sleeping at Barajas. The findings are expected by the end of June, but Meza remains unconvinced.
“We don’t want help,” he said. “We don’t want anything. We just want to be left alone.”
