Dutch government’s cruelty against ill 6-year-old refugee girl

This video from the USA is called Targeting Cancer: The Story of Leukemia.

Renata, © EO/De Vijfde Dag

Translated from Dutch daily De Volkskrant:

Teeven again under fire after disputed deportation of dying Renata

By: Maartje Bakker – 02/08/13, 06:00

State Secretary of Immigration Teeven is again under fire because medical care to an asylum seeker has failed. When 6-year-old Renata from Georgia stayed first in a refugee center, later in a prison, the medical staff did not notice that she was suffering from leukemia.

There was no access to the GP, while there were serious indications of a serious illness

CDA MP Eddy Hijum

Opposition parties in the House of Commons wonder whether deporting Renata’s family was considered more important than proper health care. Renata Agamiryan, in the weeks before she was deported, had fever and nosebleeds and showed signs of anemia: all symptoms of leukemia. Nevertheless the doctor’s assistant in the refugee center did not send her to a doctor.

When Renata’s parents brought the girl on their own initiative to a GP, the doctor prescribed a blood test. Although the parents of Renata repeatedly insisted on that test, it was not done in the next week. The dying Renata was put on a plane to Poland.

Once deported, she was found to suffer from acute leukemia. At the Binnenhof [Dutch parliament] the story evokes memories of the Russian asylum seeker Alexander Dolmatov. While in prison, he also did not get the medical care which he needed. Nurses neglected to warn doctors about the suicidal tendencies of the Russian. Dolmatov hanged himself.

“No more indifference”

In the debate on Dolmatov’s death Teeven, Secretary of Immigration promised that in the future government personnel would act more humanely when dealing with asylum seekers – so, no more indifference. This was for the PvdA

the junior partner party in the coalition government with Teeven’s VVD party

a condition to keep supporting Teeven as Secretary.

CDA MP Eddy van Hijum doubts whether Teeven can live up to his words. In the case of Renata ‘Teeven can say that there should be attention for the human dimension in dealing with asylum seekers. But I do not have the impression that this is happening.” According to Van Hijum the government failed on three occasions. “There was no access to the GP, while there were serious indications of a serious illness. The medical information was not transferred from the asylum seekers center to the prison. And there has been no medical test prior to deportation, while that should be usual.”

Also D66 and SP parties will ask Teeven questions. “It’s like Dolmatov. You feel guilty – this should not be true in the Netherlands” says Sharon Gesthuizen (SP). Gerard Schouw (D66): “The aim of deporting someone seems to have prevailed here above careful assessment of the symptoms of illness.”

Also translated from De Volkskrant:

Renata’s disease has a cure rate of 90 percent, provided that it is detected early. Things are not going well with Renata now. Her fate now depends on a second round of chemotherapy in the hospital in Poland.

Renata Agamiryan’s name sounds Armenian. The president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, preaches bigotry against the ethnically Armenian minority in his country. This is probably the background of why Renata’s family had to flee to the Netherlands.