Dutch medical and human rights organisations have criticised the country's immigration service after a failed asylum seeker with schizophrenia committed suicide days after his deportation.
Andrej Donorov, 34, a Ukrainian, had been treated for the condition since he first sought asylum in the Netherlands in 2001. He had previously entered the European Union through Spain on a tourist visa.
Doctors advising the Dutch immigration service said he could be deported back to Spain only if there was a “thorough transfer of medical information.”
In 2003 he was deported without medical notes, in handcuffs and without medical help on his journey. On arrival he was given an appointment to see a doctor 12 days later but hanged himself the day before the appointment.
The Dutch immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, acknowledges that mistakes were made in the “run up” to but not in the deportation to Spain itself. She argues that failed asylum seekers are personally responsible for the transfer of their medical details.
Written answers to MPs have showed that the Spanish authorities had been informed beforehand only that Mr Donorov was being treated for schizophrenia and was suicidal. They had not been told in advance about his specific treatment. When Mr Donorov arrived in Madrid the Dutch border police accompanying him made it clear to the Spanish authorities, with the help of a translator, that Mr Donorov needed to take his treatment every day, showing his medical bag with supplies of drugs for the next 11 days.
The Holland based Pharos centre, which specialises in refugees' health, said: “This case is exemplary of how things can go wrong.” Amnesty International has also raised the case with MPs.
Evert Bloemen, a senior adviser to Pharos, blames an accumulation of mistakes at different levels. Although the seriousness of Mr Donorov's condition was recognised in 2001, a request for permanent residence on medical grounds was rejected. Then, at the final moment of deportation, the system failed by not giving proper medical attention.
“When you have a patient with a severe psychiatric illness undergoing such a stressful event as a forced deportation, then giving him psychiatric attention after 11 days is inadequate,” said Dr Bloemen. “It should have been clear this person needed medical or psychiatric care soon after his arrival. Handling sick failed asylum seekers requires giving proper attention to transferring medical information, if necessary physically handing over the treatment to another doctor.”
The case has prompted “an adjustment” of “procedures for exchanging medical data.” The Dutch immigration service must now inform the bodies involved that it is the foreign national who is personally responsible for the transfer of his or her medical data. Ms Verdonk argued that “the medical file falls under … professional confidentiality and is therefore only available to the foreign national's doctor.”
Ms Verdonk does accept that an appeal for a temporary suspension of Mr Donorov's deportation on medical grounds should have been heard and that the need for medical care during the deportation should have been properly assessed.
The Netherlands is now urging the EU to reach “uniform agreements” over transferring foreign nationals where medical aspects are involved.