Around thirty NGOs, united in the “I participate” platform, denounce the failures of health care received by migrants arriving in Cayuco, welcomed in the centers of the State reception network, after the death of the young Malian Diallo Sissoko in the Alcalá de Henares emergency center last week. The organizations urged the government and the autonomous communities to improve the care provided to these people due to the health problems that arose during the trip and the language barrier they encounter. “We must demand a structural and organizational resizing of the health structures available in the usual enclaves of arrival, as well as in the municipalities where the reception centers are located, to be able to provide a realistic response to the entire population,” they demanded. in a community.
According to the Platform, those who arrive in Spain via the Canary Islands “do so in very dangerous conditions, making journeys of more than 10 days immobile, with little food and water, exposed to bad weather (low temperature, wind , humidity, solar radiation) and traumatic situations. The trip typically results in “health problems directly related to traveling on a precarious boat that can become worse and even lead to death.” To detect them and be able to treat them, they add, “you need properly trained health teams, who know the specific pathology linked to these circumstances and have the appropriate means”.
In some Canary Islands, experience has been gained in the provision of health care, “determining that quality care is essential upon arrival and in the days and weeks that follow”, states the press release. But not all the places where these people find themselves have the specialized care that these cases require. “Due to barriers in managing migrant care, inequalities in the system, inherent racism, certain cultural and linguistic issues, and the vulnerable situation of newcomers, care only when the patient requests it is not sufficient . “detect potentially serious health problems, the individual assessment of each person upon arrival and subsequent reassessment being essential, ensuring close medical monitoring throughout the duration of reception and guaranteeing patients’ access to health services” , he asked. . It is for this reason that they request that the resources of the National Health System “correspond to the complexity of the socio-health needs of this population”, given that migration has become something structural in Spain.
Currently, they argue, in the reception system as well as in the national health system, there is a “lack of intercultural mediation and specialized socio-health resources”. One of the failures detected is the language barrier due to the lack of interpreters. “Communication in all its dimensions is the fundamental pillar of any medical procedure: the presence of professional intercultural interpreters and mediators is necessary at all times of the process, avoiding as much as possible an underdiagnosis which could be fatal,” the press release states. .
Diallo Sissoko, 21, died after at least a week complaining of intense pain in his chest and one leg, even though he saw that his cries were not being adequately attended to at the Príncipe de Asturias Hospital. – where he was transported on October 15 – nor to the reception center, from where they did not send him back to the hospital despite the persistence of symptoms.
According to the organization, the child presented several times to the reception center’s infirmary due to chest pain and severe pain in one leg, for which he was referred to the university hospital. Príncipe de Asturias on Tuesday October 15. From there he diagnosed a respiratory infection, but Accem assures that the hospital only prescribed painkillers. Since then, Diallo Sissoko has visited the infirmary twice. The last time, this Monday, the child was under observation until his condition worsened, then the center staff called the ambulance and he was in cardiopulmonary arrest.
Added to this case is the death of the young Moroccan Shad Karim, 22, in a shelter in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) in March of this year, the death in February 2022 of another Malian, 20 years old, in a shelter of Tenerife and the discovery in 2023 in a reception center in El Hierro of the lifeless body of another young man after his arrival.
The Secretary of State for Migration does not require health services to be provided in reception centers, nor in emergency centers that house thousands of people shortly after their arrival in Cayuco, although they specify that they coordinate with the health system of the corresponding autonomous communities.
