Libya’s healthcare is a tragic, new face of crisis. This is a tied 7 -year -old girl, Sohan’s AbolsaudWhich suffers from cystic fibrosis, a inherited genetic disorder. Her family could not be treated for Sohan in Libya, so on 25 June, he decided to dare to dare for a hard deadly, illegal journey by boat for Italy for Italy in search of help.
When Sohan’s mother, Khawla nail, The picture of a smuggler’s boat on a smuggler’s boat online shared, it went viral on social media and was raised by several media outlets.
A day later, dozens of families with children who suffer from so cystic fibrosis protested in Tripoli city of Libya. He demanded access to the construction of drug and clinical centers in Libya. He said that due to lack of search services, people lose their lives.
Since the uprooting Libya dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been a plaster in political chaos. Since 2014, Libya has been divided into two, with opposing governments located in the east and west of the country. A United Nations -backed administration, known as the national unity, or the government of GNU, is located in Tripoli in the west, where Sohan’s family is. Its opponent, known as the House of Representation Act, is located in the former, in Tobrook. Many times in the last decade, each government has failed to control another – and failed.
The upcoming institutions have affected the country’s healthcare system so that advanced hospitals are not made and some medicines are rare or unavailable. In December 2021, a report by the World Health Organization found that in the southern and eastern region of Libya, one third of all facilities were “not functional”, while 73% and 47% were “partially functional”.
Libya’s family desperate
For the past seven years, Sohan’s family has paid for private laboratory tests in neighboring Tunisia and ordered the drug through private pharmacies. Without this medicine, Sohan will not have bees to survive till date.
Sohan’s mother told DW, “I presented her file to Libya’s health officials more than once, but the response was always, there is no budget.” “Everything was expensive, complex and beyond our reach. And I saw my daughter’s position determines my eye.
According to the documents received by DW, more 60 Libya families have officially presented a request to Libya’s Health Ministry for Cystic Fibrosis Treatment, affecting a life-drank lungs, digestive systems, and other organs. Documents include names and national ID numbers.
Mahmood Abu Dubus, head of the National Organization for Organ Donation Support in Libya, said that Sohan’s family was not the first to take the risk of dangerous travel in Europe in search of healthcare. “It is a serious indicator of Libya’s failure in meeting basic health needs,” Abu Dubus said.
About 10 days ago, Sohan, her mother and her stepfather climbed a boat filled with families of Libya. Sohan’s mother said, “We did not leave because we wanted to migrate, it was a disease, it does not wait.”
Many other irregular migrants are less successful on Libya or Tunisia to Europe. According to the missing migrants of the International Organization for Migration, more than 63,000 have gone missing since 2014. The actual number is mostly higher than that of reliable data is often unavailable.
Libya government provides the word, no action
Once the family came to the Lampedusa Island in Italy, which is about 420 km (260 mi) from Zuawada on the west coast of Libya, a frequent launching point for smuggling operations, the family was in a shelter, without an air conditioning. “Sohan’s disease does not tolerate cystic fibrosis, heat or dehydration, even a slight decline in fluids can send intense care,” her mother explained.
By then, Sohan’s pictures had gone viral on social media, inspired Libya’s GNU to issue a message saying that it would cover the cost of treatment of the girl in Italy.
“But he approached us only once, then everything.
DW’s efforts to contact Libya’s Health Ministry for clarification were unsuccessful and there was no response at the time of publication.
This is no surprise for Libya’s Human Rights Organization Belladi’s head Tariq Lamlam. In his experience, the support of the Libya government often ends after an initial political comment. The GNU response “did not come out of the constant sense of responsibility,” he told DW. This was due to social media thumb, he guessed.
She is so worried that Sohan’s story can provide an example of a problem for other families under similar stress. “A family already contacted me after the story went viral, asking about the travel details and can it be repeated,” he told DW. “Instead of glorifying a case in which a family had to cross the sea, the state should have provided care with the country,” he concluded.
DW’s Jennifer Holis contradicts for this report.
