Susana Uribetxeberria, Basque prisoner Xabier Ugarte Villar's wife, had an accident on 27th January. It happened at dusk after she had visited her husband in prison, and while fortunately she was not hurt, this was the first accident in 2018 caused by the dispersion policy for prisoners.
The accident happened at 19:30. It seems that as she was leaving Topas prison in Salamanca (Spain), which is 403 kilometres from the Basque Country, an animal walked onto the road and her car crashed into it. Although she was not hurt, Etxerat, the Basque prisoners' relatives' association, has made it known that she had to leave the car there and return home in a taxi.
Etxerat has denounced that although the metre starts from zero every year, because of the dispersion policy which the French and Spanish governments have followed for 30 years, and which puts Basque prisoners in different prisons hundreds of kilometres from their homeland, their relatives and friends have had more than 400 road accidents, and thousands of people have been injured: "There is absolute political responsibility for the events."
There was no need for Uribetxeberria to be in Salamanca, according to the prisoners' relatives' association: "In order to stand up for the prisoners' right to receive visits, hundreds of people have to make long, dangerous journeys." In the last twenty years 16 people have died on the road as a result of the dispersion policy.
This article was translated by 11itzulpen; you can see the original in Basque here.