Spanish government official calls for investigation into Lamine Yamal’s birthday party ‘objectifying’ people with dwarfism

A Spanish government official has called for an investigation into Barcelona star Lamine Yamal’s 18th birthday party after a prominent disability activist group said organizers of the event hired people with dwarfism “solely for entertainment and attractions” in contravention of Spanish law.

A Spanish government official has called for an investigation into Barcelona star Lamine Yamal’s 18th birthday party after a prominent disability activist group said organizers of the event hired people with dwarfism “solely for entertainment and attractions” in contravention of Spanish law. Yamal hosted the party on Sunday at a private property he had rented in the small town of Olivella, 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) southwest of Barcelona, with several online influencers in attendance along with Barça teammates. The Association of People with Achondroplasia and other Skeletal Dysplasias in Spain (ADEE) said in a statement that it “denounces the hiring of people with dwarfism as entertainment” at the party. “We will take action through legal and social channels,” the ADEE added. ADEE President Carolina Puente added in the statement: “It’s unacceptable in the 21st century that people with dwarfism are still used as amusement in private parties and even worse when these incidents involve public figues like Lamine Yamal. The dignity and rights of our collective are not the entertainment of anyone, under any circumstance.” Jesús Martín Blanco, director general of the rights of people with disabilities in Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, told Europa Press he has “asked the relevant authorities to open the necessary investigations to determine what happened” at the party.