Victor Fernando Meza works during the day, but his salary is not enough to afford rent in the Spanish capital Madrid. So, once again, the 45-year-old Peruvian will spend the night at Barajas airport.
It's not uncommon to see beggars in the streets of Spain or for people to come up to you at a restaurant or bar to ask you for money. As is often the case with Spanish laws, the rules regarding begging are decided by individual cities.
With a secure job as a bricklayer and monthly wages of €1,200, Hugo Ramírez never thought he would need the help of charity to feed his family. But spiralling living costs in Spain mean the 44-year-old father of three has been left with no other choice.
A year after the pandemic hit Spain, the need for food handouts has soared in the country, especially by workers in the sectors hit hardest by the economic crisis that followed.
"We're not animals but dogs live better than us," sighs Lidia Arribas, who lives without electricity in a vast slum near Madrid where temperatures hit historic lows this week.
Spain's leftwing government approved a minimum basic income scheme on Friday to tackle a spike in poverty stemming from the virus crisis that has forced many families to rely on food aid.
Accepting food handouts for the first time has become reality for thousands in Spain where poverty has soared during the epidemic, echoing the 2008 crisis from which many have barely recovered.
Spain is "utterly failing" its poorest citizens who are living in some of the worst conditions in Europe, despite its strong post-recession recovery, a UN expert said on Friday.
More than a quarter of all families with children in Spain are living in poverty, with most of them in three-generation
households, a Save the Children study showed Wednesday.
Spain may be the EU's poster child for economic recovery, but impressive growth rates have failed to make a dent in the number of people struggling to make ends meet despite having jobs, the "working poor".
The recently coined term aporofobia, translated as a fear and repudiation of poor people, has been chosen as the word of 2017 for “giving a name to a palpable reality”.
Barcelona’s poorest district is to pilot a “basic income” scheme that will see residents given grants to lift them above the breadline in a ground-breaking social experiment.
The death of an elderly Spanish woman in a fire caused by a candle used for light sparked outrage on Tuesday as a symbol of "energy poverty", a growing threat amid soaring power prices.
Police were called after passersby reported hearing a man calling for help from within a rubbish bin in the Vistabella neighbourhood of Murcia, southern Spain.
A new report reveals that Spain is among the worst developed countries for childhood inequality, with more than a third of children at risk of poverty.
Santander, Europe's biggest bank by capitalisation, has posted a 4.7 percent rise in third-quarter profit as growth in Spain offset the impact of a drop in the Brazilian real.
The Spanish minimum wage of €648.60 ($730) a month is not sufficient to ensure a decent standard of living, the Council of Europe has said in a new report.
