For two month now, refugees from Iran are protesting in front of the Lünen town hall against their compulsory accommodation. The four Iranians, living in Lünen for up to 9 years, were accommodated in a 3-room flat. On June 20, they were forceibly evicted in order to be accommodated together in a refugees? home in one small room. Since then, the refugees are spending both days and nights in front of the Lünen town hall in order to demand their right to adequate housing, consistent with human dignity.
Again and again, the town of Lünen tried to make the protest of the Iranians impossible: Among other things, they tried to ban the information stand (with the argument, the Greens who applied for the stand had left it to the Iranians without having a corresponding permission) and the refugees themselves were already once driven away (the Administrative Court, however, was of the opinion the four refugees should be able to exercise their right to demonstrate). In Lünen, signatures were collected to support the refugees? demands and postcards were sent to the mayor - up to now, everything was in vain. At the same time, a fifth of the living space rented and paid for by the town of Lünen is empty.
In the night from August 11 to August 12, the Iranians were attacked by five neo-nazis. Beer bottles were thrown, nazi slogans were shouted, and the information stand with the pavilion where the refugees slept was vandalized. One of the Iranians was slightly injured. The nazis were later detained by the police.
After that, the Lünen mayor finally felt impelled to give his view. The attack, he wrote, was a "deplorable scandal" and the "freedom to demonstrate a valuable asset" (hear, hear), the refugees, however, were "foreigners obliged to leave the country". Also, an improvement of the Iranians? situation would not be possible "within the scope of equal treatment of the group of persons living here".
A cynical statement, to reject the right to adequate living space with the argument that other refugees? situation is not better: of course, all refugees living in Lünen must have the right to live in a situation consistent with human dignity!
Since the refugees continue with their protest in front of the town hall, we would like to ask you to express your protest against the refugees? accommodation in Lünen ? in the hope that the Iranians can soon end their camping under the open sky:
Please send an email or a fax to the mayor of the town of Lünen