Koot Abdullah residents protested at their poor life conditions
4-December-2014
Category: ethnic minorities
Breathing in Confinement – On Monday, 1st December, people of Koot Abdullah region, gathered in front of the governor’s office to protest at the ignorance of this region’s residents’ rights by the government officials.
According to the report of “Breathing in Confinement”, Ahvaz demonstrators complained about the high unemployment rate, lack of basic civil services in Koot Abdullah, a severe shortage of educational properties and, mismanagement by Municipal authorities. This protest against the extremely poor conditions in Koot Abdullah happens while, according to public opinion, Municipal authorities are involved actively in the central region and therefore, the Arab neighborhoods have been forgotten.
Protesters of Koot Abdullah, an area of Ahwaz, believe that due to sheer neglect and ignorance by the governors, and Municipal authorities’ mismanagement, the health and hygiene levels are very low and poor in this area. These people are unhappy with the open sewage, and sewage coming up in the streets, abandoned vermin animals such as rats and sharp increases of insect vectors of disease in the residential areas, and demand their problems to be dealt with.
Regarding the high unemployment rate in this region that according to governmental statistics, has exceeded 50%, Ahvazi activists believe that government officials in a policy framework developed during the last decade, brought tens of thousands of immigrants from neighboring area cities of Ahwaz and have made all the job opportunities available to them. Ahvazi activists believe that this open immigration policy in Ahvaz is continuous of demographics change policy which has been followed over the past decades.
It is worth noting that some time ago, Koot Abdullah, the marginalized and most populous area, was renamed as Karoon Town by the government, but there has not been any change in the Arab residents’ circumstances in term of civil services in this area.