I have heard some rumours, and today have read about, increased numbers of burglaries and violence towards expats by Eastern European and North African illegal immigrant gangs - especially around the Alicante area.
It’s not going to stop us from coming out there but I was just wondering what the situation is.
Hi,
I am living on the Costa del Sol since more than 6 years ago and of course there are crimes here, but not worse than other urbanised areas in Europe. If you compare it with USA, then it`s far more safer in any Spanish town.
Just take normal precautions, specially were there is crowded with people (pickpockets). And avoid to get drunk on a late night in the red light district, but I suppose that is dangerous in all countries.
i lived in Madrid for 5 years, and yes crime is just as bad in Spain, we had our house broken into when we slept, and a friend had a group of men, break in and spray them all with some gas, so they slept through everything, kids and all, and i have heard that has happend to a few other people. You have to be aware, there are now bands of immigrants that go around and target foreigners, because we are not as aware of locals of the dangers, its like we think that it does not happen, Well it does, and so be aware, dont let it put you off
I dont agree that foreigners are targetted because they are foreigners. I think it is because they are perceived as having more money ie they buy big houses on urbanisations with swimming pools. However the Spanish do get robbed as well - I know we know plenty and we watch the Spanish TV news (and papers) everyday.
I would say the crime has moved more towards commercial targets ie shops (our accountants wife has a perfumery which was hit 3 times last Christmas). Again this is in the news.
I do not think Spain has any more crime than other countries in Europe - but I cannot prove this was any stats from web sites (any body know if this info is available?) and I am sure it far safer on the streets than many other countries.
If this is getting lots of publicity in the UK then yet again its just sensationalism.
yes i agree, it is the spaniards as well, it has coverage in the uk, because the last robbery resulted in the death of one person, so of course it would make news, I also read the spanish press and watch the news, and they are just as sensationalist as the uk, in fact some of the tv programmes are much worse.
Also lots of the brits live in isolated villas inthe mountains, and these are easy targets, I think it will get worse as time goes by
Yes the Spanish news is pretty graphic at times is not it? For the uninitiated you get the blood on the street, nudity and the King telling Chavez to shut up!
I think I’m right in saying that overall crime rates in Spain are still much lower than Northern Europe and North America, maybe around half the levels that we routinely put up with in the UK, for example. Unfortunately, they are quite a bit higher than a few years ago, and there are lots of reasons, including increased prosperity and a greater disparity between rich and poor, higher rates of drug dependency and homelessness, a generally less cohesive society. Foreign tourists are targeted because they may be drunk, lost, overburdened with baggage or just confused. A friend of ours was recently relieved of his wallet on the metro between Barajas airport and central Madrid - he’d only been in the country for 45 minutes. (I’ve also just been talking to an Aberdeen fan who was involved in some scary trouble at the Atletico game last week, but that’s another story.) As for foreign residents, they may be older and less able to protect themselves, and of course they may own property that’s left unoccupied for months on end. I don’t have figures to substantiate this, but I’m sure that foreigners are disproportionately likely to be victims of crime anywhere in the world. There’s an unpleasant trend in Spain to blame it all on immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe - when we know the vast majority of poor immigrants are too busy working all hours for poor wages to get involved in crime - but you get that sort of xenophobia everywhere. So while yep, there’s crime in Spain and some of it will affect ex-pats and holiday makers, it’s really not that bad and probably better than home. And I really wouldn’t take anything the Daily Mail says too seriously.
<snip>...we had our house broken into when we slept, and a friend had a group of men, break in and spray them all with some gas, so they slept through everything, kids and all, and i have heard that has happend to a few other people….<snip>
Yes, I am on The Costa del Sol, a friend of mine woke up to find the house (Not aprartment) had been done. She has a little girl and couldn’t understand why her and her boyfriend where not woken as she normally hears every noise, she is a light sleeper and as she has the small child she is always aware of her making any noise or getting up, none of them where disturbed and only realised they where robbed when they woke feeling groggie in the morning. The Police said they had probably been gassed as these where the typical signs. Anyway, they sold up and moved to a more secure property on the coast as she was terrified that the gas could have harmed her kid, or them.
Years ago crime was generally committed by the odd Gypsy or druggie but it appears that most of the crime now is committed by immigrants, not so much the ones coming from Africa but more from Northern and Eastern Europe. Look at the names of the criminals in the papers, although there are Spanish names there are relatively few.
Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, UK etc. are easy pickings for these immigrants on crime, they are having a field day with us.
Generalising (I know we shouldn’t) I’d say violent crime is far lower in Spain than in the UK and USA. It seems petty theft is pretty rife here in Barcelona, but then that’s common in any city so full of tourists.
But to show you how random it can all be, I lived in ‘sleepy’ Zurich for five years. True that crime is rare there, but there were two separate shooting incidents in the street around the corner from me, neither fatal, luckily enough, but both shooting incidents linked to arguments getting out of hand. Oh, and another shooting incident outside the train station nearest to where I worked!
Barcelona is wounerful city with its place to see and all to do with walks and hills
but the ryanair bus from the city is been targeted by blacks robbing the tourist on there way back to the airport that one place need to keep your eyes open
i seen it happen in New york London and lots of outher place but yes hard crime is not as big in spain as outher place
immigrants are not just targeting spain with gassing people it happen allove the EU
it sad you can be king off you castle and be safe (shotgun with gaurddog and trained )
Small dog make lots off noise hand to have one that my 2 cent
Madrid hs it problems aswll
coast del sol has it problem and only few days ago with Amy Fitzpatrick as the lack of news on the missing 15 year old Irish girl continues.
There are no firm clues as to the whereabouts of the missing 15 year old Irish girl who vanished from Calahonda, Mijas Costa on the night of January 1
Amy is 1.65 m tall, has black hair, and was wearing black track suit bottoms and a T-shirt with the word ?Diesel.? There were reports in the Spanish press on Wednesday that she was also carrying a red bag.
The contact telephone numbers for any information on her whereabouts are 112, 952 487 036, 062, 686 044 181 and 952 474 030.
As for small crimes this depends vastly on where in Spain you live. Any big city or place with lots of tourists and you’re more likely to have something stolen (whether your Spanish or a foreigner).
Small towns or pueblos are obviously far safer but who wants to live in one of those?
Is Spain a safe place to live? Yes one of the safest countries in the world.
Yes spain dose have its crime like any where but as sayed it low them more place , you have to keep you eyes open and dont be a fool , you wont leve you front dor open and go to bed now ? and not in big citys , All big citys have there problem area with drugs and pick pocketers keep you money in your inside pocket it mainly out off town people that get hit
jurdy
I hate the way that spain is always highlighted in the UK papers mainly due to the high number of Ex pats living here. My dad always refers to crime figures when I ring him, but we live in an area with low crime rate. In fact every time I look on the news I see the UK and how its rocketing out of control with the drink problems and the pubs, and people behaving the way that they do in the cities.
Spain is different, the family values are still here that went in the Uk years back, yes there are problems, but no more than anywhere else, infact usually a lot lower. You pick your area and you try and secure yourself as best you can, but crime can hit you anywhere in the world, not just here.
Overall crime rates in Spain are FAR lower than in the UK.
Particularly as soon as you get even a few kms inland, away from the coastal strip ghettos of urbanisations that infest the Costa Banca and Coast del Sol now.
