Refugee Kurdish toddler will be sent for treatment abroad

A TWO-YEAR-OLD Kurdish boy initially denied state funded medical treatment overseas because of his refugee status will be allowed to travel following the Health Minister’s intervention.

If Raj Temel “needs to go abroad, the Cyprus Republic will cover all the expenses,” said Stella Michaelidou, the Health Ministry’s acting permanent secretary.

Michaelidou said the instructions were issued by Health Minister Christos Patsalides over the phone.

She said according to the regulations the child was not allowed treatment abroad. Nevertheless it was at the minister’s discretion to waive those regulations on humanitarian grounds, she added.

Michaelidou was referring to the current policy that only allowed political refugees access to medical treatment in Cyprus because state funding did not extend to treatment abroad. However there are appears to be some confusion because according to the refugee law amended in 2007 refugees are allowed the same medical treatments as Cypriots and EU citizens.

In this case the toddler has been struggling with respiratory problems for the past eight months and has been in and out of Nicosia’s Makarios hospital and Limassol hospital. Despite local doctors’ recommendations that the child fly to the UK for treatment he was denied on the grounds of his refugee status.

“According to the information I have from the hospital the child is not in a position to travel at the moment. His condition will be re-evaluated by his doctor on Monday and if it is deemed useful for the child’s health for him to go abroad all organisations will be immediately activated,” she said.

Michaelidou said the minister had already decided to change the procedure regarding procedures dealing with similar issues.

“In cases involving an obvious humanitarian character, such as small children and young people, and if according to the regulations they are not eligible for treatment abroad, their case will be mentioned to the Health Minister before we respond to the interested party. If [the interested party] fulfills the criteria referred to by law that for humanitarian reasons and reasons of public interest, he will be treated immediately and the citizen will receive a complete response,” she said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.