Migrant Occupation of Seville University
01 August 2002
On 10 June 2002, 400 immigrant workers locked themselves in Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, beginning a two-month occupation to demand the regularisation of their status (ie: the right of residence). Some of the protestors had taken part in similar occupations last year but felt compelled to re-occupy because of the failure by the authorities to fulfil commitments (ie: obtaining preliminary employment contracts and being regularised by the government). The police response was to cordon off the university including mounted officers, and screening everyone seeking access to it. In the process they arrested several dozen immigrants who tried to join the occupation. The police even conducted a mounted charge within the university grounds, followed by detentions, which led to tension with the university authorities.
The initial cooperation given by the head of the university to the occupation dissolved as the occupation continued. It ended with complicity in a police raid and the detention of those who remained inside. The role of mediator in negotiations with the government was taken on by the Andalucían regional ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), José Chamizo. After the first month of occupation, differences between the immigrant collectives ended with the decision by 145 of them to abandon the occupation and wait for their regularisation requests to undergo due procedure. With these divisions Chamizo abandoned his role as mediator.
On 8 August, shortly before the second month of the occupation, the police broke into the university and detained the 270 immigrants who remained inside, expelling a large number of them from the country in the following weeks.