“Our homelessness and displacement continue because there is no one cares about us”, a homeless Ahwazi Arab family told the New Abadan news website.
In an interview, Lida Bagheri claimed that she was arrested with her young daughter and detained for 16 hours after being evicted from their home in Abadan, which is owned by a government organisation. The family were thrown onto the street with their furniture as they could no longer afford the rent.
The family had lived in the house for 18 months, but the government organisation that owned it filed a complaint in the court to force them out within two months. However, the impoverished Arab family had nowhere to go. Bagheri`s husband is a vendor and his income is insufficient to cover basic means. Rents in Abadan are rising, while the poor are seeing their incomes plunge in real terms.
Lida Bagheri added “Displacement over the years has put much pressure on me and my family. I had asked the governor and Khamenei`s representativein the city and other organisations for help, but I have received nothing. We cannot enroll our daughter in school because we haven’t a permanent residence. We expect the authorities to give us at least a tent to live in it. Our furniture is in the municipality right now, and we spend all night in the street in this overwhelming hot weather. Our homelessness and displacement continue because there is no one cares about us.”
Abadan contains one of the Middle East`s biggest refineries with many downstream petrochemical plants, but most workers are brought in from other provinces.
