Doctors condemn deportation of sick Albanian children

Two doctors have harshly criticised authorities for deporting children suffering from serious health conditions from Iceland.  A public protest against the deportation has been organised on Tuesday in Reykjavik.

As we reported last week , two Albanian families were deported in the middle of the night and flown back to Albania. One family have a three-year-old, Kevi,  suffering from cystic fibrosis and the other, a one-year-old, Arjan, with a heart defect.

A "shameful act"

Heart specialist and pediatrician Hróðmar Helgason treated Arjan and has spoken out against the "shameful act" of deporting the child. He said that he had expected the little boy to undergo surgery here in Iceland and further stated that the authorities had not contacted him for any sort of medical opinion.

Pediatrician Kristján Dereksson, who treats children, including Albanian children, with cystic fibrosis in Sweden, condemned the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration in writing on his personal Facebook page . Dereksson, who has experience in treating children with cystic fibrosis states that the little boy won't reach an age of more than 10 years old with the insufficient health care available to him in Albania.

The doctor believes that those at the Directorate dealing with the matter of the Albanian families either had basically no clue about the state of the healthcare system in Albania or blatantly chose to disregard it.

Directory of Immigration obtained  no pediatric assessments

"In Albania you either have to pay an enormous amount of money for healthcare or bribe health care workers. Do people think that the family of the three-year-old are able to pay for around 6-8 different medicines, rehabilitation and medical visits every two to three months? To pay for hospital stays for more than a week at a time each time he comes down with a bout of serious pneumonia? Pay for oxygen canisters and masks when his lungs have become so full of mucous and bacteria that he will need it to survive?" He further states that it's unbelievable that the Directory of Immigration didn't receive an assessment from a pediatrician in the case of little Kevi.

Minister considers looking into regulations

Minister of the Interior, Ólöf Nordal, who has been under harsh public criticism demanding her resignation over the matter, made a speech at a church service in Hafnarfjörður and said that "She would not stand by in silence." Having previously stated that she had no say in the matter, Nordal said that the Government had to adhere to rules but that she would be asking Parliament to debate over whether these regulations needed to be changed. "It's not a personal matter, it's a strategic matter, a matter of human rights, and also a very delicate matter. It needs to be clear that children and their rights are secured and if these regulations are not clear enough, I need to fix that."

No medicine in Albania

Father of three-year-old Kevi, Kast­rijot Pepoj, was interviewed this weekend by the RÚV national broadcasting service. In the interview he said that medicine for Kevi's condition was not available in Albania and that their lawyer in Iceland had advised the family not to appeal the ruling in the case as it was unlikely that they would receive asylum in Iceland. Asked by RÚV why they had not appealed in the case he answered," That's just because our lawyer advised us not to. Kevi couldn't receive the medicine in Iceland that he'd been receiving before. The doctors told us that the Directorate of Immigration wouldn't pay for the treatment anymore because it was too expensive." He further added that he had plenty of documentation which he presented in Iceland confirming that Kevi's medicine was not available in Albania. "The healthcare system in Albania is no good for him. There's nothing here for Kevi, he can't get his medication." Pepoj also criticises the way in which the family were deported and says that the children have still not calmed down after being fetched in the middle of the night by police "as if they were terrorists."

The stories of the father and the Icelandic lawyer don't match

Mbl.is interviewed Arndís A.K.Gunnarsdóttir, the family's lawyer yesterday. "I don't know why he's saying that," she said and strongly denied his claims . She says they are frankly untrue and completely opposite to their actual conversations. "Twice I convinced them to not to withraw their appeal in the case. " She also sys that she had explained the clause many times to the family that they might be able to get an exemption, and to receive asylum for either humanitarian or health care reasons - especially because the matter involves a child."

Asked by mbl.is whether this could be a misunderstanding between them because of language problems, she says that's impossible. "The father of the child with the heart condition, who spoke very good English, translated everything for the family."

The protest, organised HERE on Facebook takes place at 5 pm, tomorrow, Tuesday, outside Parliament on Austurvöllur, Reykjavik.