FREE COPY SPORT THE NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHERN SPAIN Shock in Spain’s Official market leader golfing world Audited by PGD/OJD at US murder September 21st to 27th 2018 www.surinenglish.com The reigning amateur European women’s News 2 Health & Beauty 44 champion Celia Barquín Comment 24 Sport 55 was stabbed to death on Lifestyle 26 My Home 61 Food & Drink 42 Classified 64 Iowa course P55 in English What To Do 51 Pastimes 70 MALEVICH IN FULL Malaga’s Russian museum displays work from the many phases of the career of the abstract influencer P36 Visitors admire Malevich’s Peasants at the exhibition in the Russian museum in the Tabacalera building in Malaga. :: FÉLIX PALACIOS Tourism industry closes ranks to halt downward trend in visitor numbers The negative figures for July have forced Rather than waiting to see if nega- del Sol fell in July, visitor numbers in try’s tourism industry. The govern- tive figures become a trend, at the Seville, Granada and other inland cit- ment is “concerned” but “optimis- tourism authorities into action as others first sign of poor health, the Tourism ies increased significantly. tic”, she said. A more pessimistic at- department at the Junta de Andalucía Meanwhile, Spain’s minister for titude came from Ryanair CEO Mi- express concerns about the possible has got together a group of experts Tourism, Reyes Maroto, said this chael O’Leary on Thursday, who sug- and given them the task of diagnos- week that the Spanish government gested that he might be selling tick- effects of Brexit on the tourism industry ing the problem and then finding the is working on minimising the po- ets for flights that “might not ex- solution. While figures on the Costa tential effects of Brexit on the coun- ist” after Brexit. P5&22 Armed raiders get away Nurses from Malaga Malaga’s perfect start in No ideal solution with 200,000 euros province leave good jobs the second division after breaking into bank in in the UK to come back continues winning five to the ongoing central Marbella through a home to be closer to their games out of five and problem of illegal hole in the wall P4 families P10&11 topping the table P56 street vendors Business losses, police frustration and exploitation all combine in this complex issue P2&3 Vendors in Marbella. :: J-L 22222222 September 21st to 27th 2018 NEWS SUR IN ENGLISH A sales problem with migrants. The police have identified at least seven of these “bosses”. Two no easy solution of them drive Mercedes. In his re- port the Local Police chief points out that it is “a priority to avoid forceful arrests or actions that can scare peo- ple away”, as well as any other “dis- proportionate action that could lead to reproach from passers-by” and put citizen safety at risk. Back in March local business own- ers called a meeting to tackle the prob- lem in Torremolinos and Benalmádena, which was attended by both mayors and representatives of the Local and National Police forces. “It was useless because they never put into action any of the measures we called for,” said the president of the Benalmádena Traders Association ACEB, Rosa María González, who says she is “indignant” at the impunity with which illegal trading grows every year on the Costa del Sol. “This summer I’ve received more than 500 photographs of these hawkers taken by local traders, be- cause a lot of them are sick of them standing right in front of their shops. A hawker sells his goods on the La Malagueta beach. :: MIGUE FERNÁNDEZ How can we allow someone to come along and lay down a sheet full of fake versions of the same goods sold The complicity of citizens and lack of police resources pave the way in the shop right behind him, when for illegal street vendors and cause a headache for local businesses the shopkeeper is paying 4,000 or 5,000 euros just in rent, as is the case in Puerto Marina?” she added. Every summer local coast. The displays of bags, shirts nant feeling among the Costa’s lo- taxes, it swells the “black” economy Some of the alternatives suggested police in tourist resorts and trainers make some stretches cal police officers is, however, im- and generates million-euro losses by business owners and councils in- of promenade in Puerto Banús, La potence. Their work multiplies in for firms that manufacturer and sell volve registering the vendors in co- confiscate thousands of Carihuela or Benalmádena almost the summer, when paradoxically bags, sunglasses, watches or cloth- operatives where their commercial fake goods, but very few impassable in the summer when there are fewer officers on duty due ing. The European Observatory on activity is regulated, or moving them arrests are made the population can triple in these to holidays. Add to this the frustra- Infringements of Intellectual Prop- to markets. So far however, these tourist resorts with services de- tion as the hawkers tend to aban- erty Rights has pointed out that options have been frustrated by the signed for their census of around don the area minutes before they some sectors lose up to 17 per cent fact that many of the hawkers have :: ALBERTO GÓMEZ 75,000 people. arrive thanks to informants who of jobs due to the illegal vendors. no legal documents and others re- MALAGA. The sheets spread out The concentration of the hawk- take a share of the profits. Trade in fake goods, in the words fuse to stop selling fakes, their main on the promenade from which ers in one particular area compli- The problem wouldn’t be there, of Pablo López, accounts director at source of income. tourists are invited to buy goods cates the work of the local police. of course, if there wasn’t a demand intellectual property specialists Through the Local Police, local with fake designer labels, have be- Officers who normally patrol in for the goods from the general pub- Clarke, Modet & Co, uses a structure councils seize thousands of items come part of the scenery on the pairs have little room to manoeu- lic. Police officers have told this news- similar to that of drug or arms traf- every summer, a figure that con- Costa del Sol. Scarce police re- vre when as many as ten vendors paper that they are often rebuked fickers. An internal report within trasts with the few arrests. The ven- sources, the complicit custom from group together. The situation has by both locals and tourists when they the Benalmádena Local Police force dors tend to run when they realise passers-by and the lack of consen- forced councils in towns such as confiscate the fake goods on sale. reveals the organisation of this ille- there are police around and leave sus over how to deal with the prob- Marbella and Benalmádena to re- While their activity might seem gal industry, on occasions controlled their goods behind - or bury them lem has turned illegal street vend- inforce their patrols aimed at con- harmless, it constitutes unfair com- by ringleaders who don’t sell items in the sand - a reaction that prevents ing into a chronic offence on the trolling illegal selling. The predomi- petition for traders who pay their themselves but exploit dozens of the officers from associating the in- September 21st to 27th 2018 3 SUR IN ENGLISH NEWS Although it may seem a harmless activity, the illegal vendors upset the shop owners who pay taxes dividuals with the goods and from issuing fines for illegal trading. Informants Internally, officers from several Po- lice forces on the Costa del Sol have called for reinforcements in the form of substitutions, the employment of municipal informants, the setting up of an immediate action unit and paid overtime. They also agree that the problem should be tackled from a A tourist expresses an interest in some necklaces. :: MIGUE FERNÁNDEZ People also sell food and drink on the beach. :: MIGUE FERNÁNDEZ global perspective given the increase in violent reactions among the ven- dors: “It’s not just something that concerns the Local Police,” they say. Recently in Marbella a group of il- legal street vendors turned on police who had confiscated the fake goods that they were trying to sell on Ro- deíto beach. The three officers were outnumbered and a large part of the contraband was snatched back. Behind the illegal hawkers are sev- eral mafia-style organisations that supply the goods, the majority of them fakes, stored on industrial es- tates. The mafias force the migrants to endless working days, exposed to arrest at any moment. Tired of this situation, several vendors in Benalmádena have been trying for at least a year to create their own brand, following the ex- ample of Barcelona, where the A street vendor on Marbella seafront. :: JOSELE-LANZA A vendor with bags for sale. :: J - LANZA hawkers sell trainers, T-shirts and other articles under the brand Top Manta, the name given in Spanish searched seven vehicles which to the sale of goods on sheets or blan- 29 detained and 10,000 fake designer items were owned by the stallholders kets (mantas). The idea has not and parked near the marketplace. caught on yet on the Costa del Sol. seized from the Tuesday market in Fuengirola As a result, 29 people were arrested “There are a lot of us who want to and more than 10,000 items of change this way of life. We would clothing, footwear, bags, wallets prefer to be in a street market, but and other accessories were seized.