A German couple has been been notified they must vacate their apartment to make room for refugees who will soon be placed there, according to local media. Klaus Roth, 74, who has lived in his apartment in the town of Neckartailfingen for 24 years, is stunned by the decision, which was reached by the municipal council and mayor, Nürtinger Zeitung reports.
"I put a lot of money and work into the apartment," said Roth, who raised his three children in the home. "I completely renovated it on my own."
"You do not transplant an old tree."
Roth and his partner have been offered a replacement dwelling half the size of their current abode – for the same cost.
Roth has an extensive record of activism and service in the community, including volunteering to aid and welcome 'refugees,' approximately 40 of whom have already been resettled in town.
Now, with migrant housing reportedly filled to the max, officials have decided Roth's six-room, 150 square meter flat would be perfect for a large group of 'asylum seekers.'
"We are under pressure and need to take in more refugees," said Mayor Gerhard Gertitschke. "There is no way to say that we can not accommodate them."
Roth's eviction in favor of migrants is just the latest in a growing list of similar incidents, some of which can be referenced here, here, and here.
In Italy, entire hotels have been seized by the government to house migrants (during the prior administration).
"The fact that cities or towns evict tenants to accommodate refugees does not happen frequently, but is legal," Nürtinger Zeitung explains. "In a comparable case, the District Court of Göttingen had considered the termination of a tenant who lived with another person in a four-room apartment as lawful."
"This was justified by the fact that the public interest of the community in accommodation of the refugees outweighs other interests, especially since it was not clear that the community could have resorted to other types of accommodation."