Aid organization Doctors without Borders (AzG) has urgently sent two people who were staying at the application center in Ter Apel in the Netherlands to hospital. It concerns a man who had an acute heart attack and a man with diabetes who had not received insulin for a month. A three-month-old baby had also died earlier.
As of today, Doctors Without Borders provides medical and psychological care to asylum seekers outside the gate of the application center in the Groningen village. “We see a lot of neglected chronic diseases,” said MSF director Judith Sargentini.
For example, the man with diabetes had already traveled without insulin for some time before he arrived in Ter Apel. He should have received immediate medical attention there, but that did not happen. The man who suffered the acute heart attack was treated by an MSF doctor and then sent to hospital.
“Government crisis”
The organization also sees many people with sores on their bodies. “That could very well be scabies. That happens where people live close together without good hygiene,” says Sargentini.
This is the first time that MSF has provided emergency aid in the Netherlands. The organization would like to be able to leave as soon as possible. “Because this is not a refugee crisis. This is a governance crisis. And municipalities want to arrange shelters for Ukrainians, but not for these people.”
slept outside
Last nights, about seven hundred people slept outside in Ter Apel. In the meantime, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports that it is the intention that from tomorrow no more people will sleep outside. The cabinet is diligently looking for additional reception places for this. “We are looking with other municipalities to see who can help with what. The acute problems for the reception can only be solved by having more places,” said the Dutch Minister of Justice.
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