Palma de Majorca.Catholic charity Caritas said yesterday in Palma that those people who are suffering hardship this year, will continue to do so in 2012.
Charity spokesman Llorenç Riera expressed concern that homelessness and hunger will set in as a pattern of life for the underprivileged. He said: Such people turn to organisations like Caritas on an ongoing basis because they can't see a way out of their situation. Riera said that families of the long-term unemployed could suffer real deprivation and be in need of immediate help. He said that in recent years, the typical profile of those being asking Caritas for help has been changing.
He explained that although many immigrants have gone back to their country of origin, those that remain are depending on charity for survival.
Riera said that there are also now many Majorcans who thought that they would never have to ask for a charitable handout but because of the crisis are now finding they need to.