Migrant Fruit Picker Dies Of Heatstroke Outside Hospital

Story By: Ana LacasaSub-EditorAlex Cope, Agency: Real Press

A 42-year-old migrant worker has died after suffering from heatstroke while picking fruit in southern Spain and being dumped outside a hospital entrance where he was left for dead.

Eleazar Benjamin Blandon Herrera, 42, an asylum seeker from Nicaragua, suffered from heatstroke while picking watermelons in temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in the municipality of Puerto Lumbreras in the south-eastern Spanish region of Murcia.

Colleagues took the Nicaraguan man to a hospital in the city of Lorca where he reportedly died outside the entrance.

Real Press/Eleazar Blandon

A Spanish Civil Guard spokesperson told Real Press that the victim’s boss, who comes from Ecuador and whose name has not been disclosed, has been arrested and since released on charges.

Eleazar’s sister Ana Blandon told Real Press that the migrant’s working conditions were very poor.

She said: “He was insulted and attacked by colleagues, he worked in very bad conditions in high temperatures.

“He once told me that some workers were crying like children because of the poor treatment.

“My brother was not given food or water while working and the last time I spoke to him he looked bad, much older, and I told him to take care of himself.”

Ana, who also lives in Spain, said that her brother used to wake up at 5am every day and spend 11 hours picking watermelons for only 30 EUR (27 GBP) a day.

Real Press/Nicaragua Solidaria en Espana

Eleazar arrived in the Spanish city of Bilbao in October 2019 seeking asylum over claims he was receiving death threats for his anti-government activism.

His sister said that he had to leave his pregnant wife behind, but his asylum process was held up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ana told Real Press: “He wanted to work in Spain for three years and then go back home to set up a fast-food restaurant.”

Eleazar had other four children from a different relationship. The oldest one is 21 years old while his baby was born only a few months after he moved to Spain.

Jesus Lorente, a member of the Frente Obreros en Lucha (Fighting Frontline Workers) union told Real Press that “the situation with temporary workers is always the same, being forced to work for long hours for little money in bad conditions and under intense heat”.

Spain’s Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, said in a tweet: “This is horrible, there are no words and a lot of things to do.

Real Press/Nicaragua Solidaria en Espana

“I am thinking about his sister Ana, his wife and his children… it is terrible”.

The employment department of the regional government of Murcia told Real Press that there two inspections had been carried out in the area and that it was confirmed that the victim was working for a “company of agriculture services that did not have work permits and therefore he did not have social security”.

Sister Ana told Real Press: “I do not know what is happening with the body, police do not tell me anything and I only want to see his body as this is what his wife and his mum are asking me to do.”

A Civil Guard spokesman told Real Press that the investigation is ongoing. The suspect has been released on charges.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.