We, the undersigned, strongly urge to consider ways of ending discriminative acts of Spanish banks against legal Iranian citizens residing in Spain.

We are suffering from the illegal treatment of Spanish financial institutions.Enacting discriminative policies, most of the Spanish banks suspend or block the bank accounts of Iranian expatriates in Spain without providing rational reasons, or they refrain from opening a bank account for Iranian nationality.

Irrespective of the types of our residency status in Spain (student/worker/self-employed /legal refugee and etc.), we all face similar problems.

We believe that this act is a clear violation of resident’s rights as according to the laws of the European Union “if you are legally resident in an EU country, you are entitled to have a bank account”. Even those who can successfully open an account face countless problems holding the account, despite presenting all legal documents including income and tax slips.

Since having a bank account is essential for supplying immediate basic needs (such as food, accommodation, clothing, basic health essentials, health insurance and education), depriveing us from having a bank account is an obvious violation of human rights.

Some examples of the people who are seriously affected by this unfair situation:

• 
  Students, who are mostly self-funded, have problems paying their tuition and the costs of their basic needs such as phone bills or internet.
• Some residents, who have mortgage debt, not being able to pay back their loans and are at risk of losing their houses through eviction.
• People who are losing their job.
• Parents who cannot enrol their kids in school.

We are paying the same taxes as Spanish citizens do, but we don’t have the same rights as they have.

It is worth mentioning that this tragedy also severely affected Iranians who are in the process of renewing their residency card (NIE) as they need to show that they have sufficient money in their bank accounts.

It should be noted that the Spanish Banks are violating Spain’s article No.14 of constitutional law by illegal massive closure of bank accounts and not opening bank accounts especially during the pandemic situation.

Through emails and phone calls, the banks inform Iranian clients that they should voluntarily close their accounts within a short-determined period of time and in some cases, the banks blocked the accounts without previous notice.

The bank officials verbally state that the main reason for such treatment is the Iranian nationality of the account holder but they refuse to present any written statement to the clients.

We therefore urge Spanish authorities and banks to stop this discrimination against Iranian nationality and exercise the legal rights that enable us to open bank accounts and carry out online transactions.

We are calling the attention of Human Rights Authorities to help us immediately as our situation is so hectic and critical!
Thank you for supporting us.

هموطن گرامی
مدتی است بانک‌ها و مؤسسات مالی با برخوردی تبعیض‌آمیز، به‌‌طور گسترده و به‌خصوص در بحبوحه شیوع کرونا، ‏اقدام به مسدود کردن و بستن حساب‌های ایرانیان مقیم اسپانیا نموده‌ و از افتتاح حساب برایشان خودداری می‌کنند

بسیاری ‏از اقشار ایرانی مقیم و از جمله دانشجویان ایرانی با مشکلات عدیده‌ای دست و پنجه نرم می‌کنند و در پرداخت هزینه‌های روزانه زندگی ‏با مشکلات بسیاری روبرو هستند

این بانک‌ها از ارائه دلایل کتبی مشخص در این‌باره خودداری کرده و در توجیه این اقدام ‏تبعیض‌آمیز شفاهاً به داشتن پاسپورت و ملیت ایرانی اشاره می‌نمایند

با توجه به شرایط دشواری که نداشتن حساب بانکی برای ایرانیان ‏رقم زده است (ازجمله ناتوانی افراد در پرداخت هزینه های روزانه ،اقساط، بیمه‌های درمان، ثبت‌نام فرزندان، و غیره)، از شما تقاضا داریم با ‏امضای این طومار (پتیشن) ما را یاری دهید تا بتوانیم صدای دادخواهی‌مان را به گوش مراجع بین‌المللی برسانیم و در جهت ‏احقاق حقوق اولیه هموطنان خود قدم مثبتی برداریم.‏

همراهی شما باعث دلگرمی ماست و پیشاپیش از بذل محبت شما سپاسگزاریم

Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, instamos firmemente a considerar formas de poner fin a los actos discriminatorios de los bancos españoles contra los ciudadanos iraníes jurídicas residentes en España.

Estamos sufriendo el tratamiento ilegal de las instituciones financieras españolas.

La promulgación de políticas discriminatorias, la mayoría de los bancos españoles suspender o bloquear las cuentas bancarias de los expatriados iraníes en España sin proporcionar razones racionales, o se abstengan de abrir una cuenta bancaria para la nacionalidad iraní.

Además, disponer de una cuenta bancaria es esencial para el suministro de las necesidades básicas inmediatas (como alimentos, alojamiento, ropa, elementos esenciales básicos de salud, seguro de salud y educación), nos depriveing de tener una cuenta bancaria es una violación evidente de los derechos humanos.

Por consiguiente, instamos autoridades y los bancos españoles para detener esta discriminación contra la nacionalidad Iraní y ejercer los derechos legales que nos permiten abrir cuentas bancarias y llevar a cabo transacciones en línea.

¡Llamamos la atención de las Autoridades de Derechos Humanos para que nos ayuden de inmediato ya que nuestra situación es tan agitada y crítica!

Gracias por apoyarnos.