South Africa: Court bid too late to save Ethiopia refugee Young Sidama Man fled persecution from Ethiopian repressive regime to South Africa has been denied Treatment and passed away last week November 29, 2014 (citizen) — An urgent court application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) came too late to save the life of a desperately ill Ethiopian refugee, who was refused dialysis at a state hospital. LHR was forced to remove their application from the court roll yesterday after Ethiopian refugee Badesa Fokora died before the application could be heard. The 27-year-old man was taken to the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg after he fell gravely ill a month ago. He was diagnosed with double kidney failure. The hospital admitted that his condition was life threatening but told his family they could not help him because he did not qualify for dialysis and an organ transplant under the chronic renal treatment programme as he was not a South African citizen. Even when his family offered to contribute to the costs, the hospital said they were not allowed to put him on the programme because it was not available to foreign nationals. According to the National Health Act, only citizens and permanent residents can be placed on the programme but LHR said the Refugee Act clearly stated that refugees had to be treated like citizens on medical issues. LHR had planned to challenge this decision and compel Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to exercise his discretion to have Fokora placed on the programme. The case would have also dealt with the exclusion of refugees from medical treatment. LHR’s Patricia Erasmus said they were disappointed that a young man had died under preventable circumstances. “The National Health Act is clear that the Minister of Health has a discretion to order chronic renal treatment to a foreign national. “The manner in which the department treated Mr Fokora is a gross and unjustifiable violation of his rights to health care, dignity and ultimately life,” she said. “This exclusion is unconstitutional because it does not distinguish between refugees and other non-nationals,” she said. – [email protected]. Source: Citizen ayyaantuu/horn-of-africa-news/south-africa-court-bid-too-late-to-save-ethiopia-refugee/
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 20:33:42 +0000
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