The state of alarm in Spain like elsewhere has locked women at home, 24 hours a day, including those who suffer from sexist violence and now they are locked in with their abusers. Likewise it has also confined children who suffer assaults at home.
The Spanish Ministry of Equality has reported this Wednesday that calls to 016, the number of attention to female victims, registered an increase in calls of 18% from 14 to 29 compared to the same fortnight in February.
There have been 521 more calls, reaching 3,382 in these two weeks.
Experts have reiterated their fear that gender-based violence and violence against children will increase during the lockdown due to the coronavirus emergency.
Psychologists from the Anar Foundation, which manages the helpline for minors, warn of the vulnerability of children: from 23 to 31 March, they have attended 311 cases in their chat and detected 195 serious cases. Of these, four out of 10 were of children who suffered violence.
During the first two weeks of the state of alarm in the Spanish state, the calls to 016 compared to the same period of 2019, have increased by 12 %.
And considering the whole month of March, calls have increased by more than 10%: 597 more than in 2019, reaching 6,271.
Email inquiries increased by 269.6%: from 23 between 14 and and 29 March 2019 to 85 in the same fortnight this year. 116 inquiries were received online throughout the month. And 168 women resorted to the psychological attention service by WhatsApp since it was launched, on 21 March until 29 March.
