Mohammed is from Pakistan. He is 36 years old. He requested international protection and asylum and his request was rejected in both first and second degree. Mohammed has been diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease (CKD) at a terminal stage by Greek Public hospitals and since May 2019 he has joined a dialysis treatment program, three times per week, at the artificial kidney unit of a public hospital in the Attica region. The treatment will be necessary for the rest of his life.
Mohammed has been referred to the legal team of the organization’s Solidarity Center in Athens by the NGO responsible for his accommodation in order to get legal support for his second asylum request at the Greek Asylum Service. The case of Mohammed was directly classified as one of “high priority”, since the beneficiary would be deprived of his medical treatment and accommodation, if he was no longer deemed as an international protection applicant and thus with no legal residence status in the country.
The practical difficulty of this kind of claim is the long waiting periods both in booking an appointment with the asylum service for the claim to be registered and in having the claim examined for admissibility. This is the case even for vulnerable applicants. The above facts call into question the access of an extremely vulnerable person to medical care and housing, two basic social welfare benefits, which must be provided to everyone, and especially to those who, for health reasons, are unable to provide for themselves.
The Solidarity Center’s legal team immediately began the process of submitting the required legal and medical supporting documents, requested an appointment with the relevant department for vulnerable cases and succeeded in highlighting the urgency of the case. The positive outcome at every step of the process has generated optimism for both the legal team and Mohammed himself. The request was examined in the form of urgency, and Mohammed received the international protection certificate. He now gets his treatment in the public hospital without any problems, as every citizen is entitled to.