COVID-19 exposed deep flaws in Spain's anti-poverty system - U.N. expert

FILE PHOTO: Philip Alston, at the time the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, attends a news conference in Beijing, China, August 23, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

MADRID (Reuters) - The coronavirus outbreak has highlighted serious weaknesses in Spain's social security system and a failure to address the plight of the poorest people, a UN expert said on Monday.

"Spain’s social protection net was utterly inadequate before COVID-19, but the pandemic has since exposed just how deeply it is failing people," Philip Alston, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said in a report on a fact-finding mission he made to Spain this year.