False alert
Spain has over 47
million residents
Spain’s population has broken the 47
million barrier for the first time in six
years. Last month’s data from the
National Statistics Institute shows the
official population on January 1 this
year was 47,007,367.
The British Embassy in Madrid was
evacuated over a false bomb alert last
month when the city’s Torre Espacio,
Spain’s fourth highest building, became
the target for hoaxers. As well as the UK’s
embassy, the 224 metre tower is home to
the Canadian, Australian and Dutch
Embassies in its 56 storeys. Private
security staff at the Australian Embassy
are reported to have advised the false
warning to police.
Permission granted
Barcelona has issued planning permission
for the uncompleted Sagrada Família
cathedral 134 years after a building licence
was first requested by the original
architect, Antoni Gaudí. His 1885
application to build the city icon was
never signed off by any previous local
authority, although the licence will still
not be issued until all the original and
current planning regulations are met. The
city hopes that construction will be
complete in 2026, the centenary of
Gaudí’s birth.
Barrier broken
New government data shows that over half
a million residential properties changed
hands in 2018, the first time the barrier
has been broken since the start of the
financial crisis. The total of 515,051 homes
sold is up 10.1 per cent in 2017. Andalucía
was the region with the highest number of
sales but was third after Valencia and the
Baleriac Islands in terms of transactions
per 1,000 residents.
Airport arrest
Guardia Civil officers boarded a flight
from Lisbon on March 9 after it touched
down in Málaga and arrested a female
Spanish pensioner. The captain branded
her “the worst passenger ever,” and
banned her from flying with TAP ever
again. Passengers on the 60-minute flight
said she flew into a drunken rage, refusing
to put her hand luggage in the overhead
lockers and demanding a mixer for the
vodka in her hip flask.
42 million Spanish nationals account
for 89.3 per cent of the total
population, a rise of 284,387.
Foreigners have not broken the five
million barrier set in 2014, but the
number of new ex-pat residents last
year was almost twice that recorded in
2017. Residents from other EC
countries constitute 36.3 per cent of
ex-pats, while 22.3 per cent originate
from African nations. The national
group which has enlarged most are the
Venezuelans who have increased their
number by 44 per cent to 42,000.
Moroccans continue to be the largest
foreign group with 812,412 residents,
followed by 669,434 Romanians, with
249,015 Britons in third place.
The average age of the population is 43
years. Just over third of Spanish
nationals fall into the 16-44 age bracket,
in contrast to the 55 per cent of all
non-Spaniards who are in the same age
range. There are 8.9 million people in
Spain aged 65 or over, of which British
ex-pats are the oldest group. The Brits
have an average age of 53.6 years,
followed by the Germans at 49.2 and
the French at 42.6.
Andalucía has 8.4 million residents and
is one of just four of Spain’s 17
autonomous regions which are home
to 59 per cent of the population. The
others are Cataluña, with 7.6 million
inhabitants, the Greater Madrid region,
with 6.6 million, and the Comunidad
Valenciana, with five million.
A separate report from the Permanent
Immigration Observatory last month
says there were 773,653 foreign
residents registered in Andalucía at the
end of 2018. The province of Málaga
had become home to the greatest
number (268,889) followed by Almería
(171,097), Sevilla (83,502) and Granada
(80.643). In all cases, these provincial
totals were higher than recorded 12
months earlier.
“Zombie” drug warning
in Tenerife
Tourists visiting Tenerife have been
warned about the use of a little-known
drug to make victims compliant
enough to follow their attacker’s
instructions. The advice comes after a
27-year-old Irish national was robbed
of cash and belongings after being
sprayed with it. The substance is
scopolamine, a medication used to
treat motion sickness as well as nausea
and vomiting following an operation.
Also known as hyoscine, the odourless
powder is made from a particular
species of deadly nightshade. Its effects
are felt within 20 minutes and can last
for up to eight hours, but it disappears
from the bloodstream in a maximum
of six hours, and can only be detected
in urine within 12 hours. In large doses,
it can be lethal.
David Nelson from County Wicklow
said he was conned by a woman in a
nightclub, after apparently inhaling the
12
drug, known colloquially as Devil’s
Breath, when on holiday on Tenerife
during March. When it took effect, she
took his phone, gold watch and
bracelet, removed €600 from his wallet
and took him to a cash-point where she
took as much money from his accounts
as she could before his cards were
declined. He said he remembered very
little of what happened after being
sprayed, and felt like he had been
turned “into a zombie.”
The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth
Office already warns UK tourists about
scopolamine in Colombia and Ecuador
where the drug is known as
burundanga and where it is believed to
have been blamed for “thousands of
crimes.” There is presently no such
warning for visitors to Tenerife,
although the Department of Foreign
Affairs in London has acknowledged
that Spanish authorities have warned
of date-rape drugs being used.