Due to armed conflicts and other types of forced displacement, such as natural disasters, the number of people who have to search refuge or asylum It is countries like Spain that are growing.
To welcome these people, there are a series of protocols in our country. However, as was evident on the day ‘Encounter in intersectionality. Disability and shelter’, organized by ONCE, CERMI and UNHCRthese protocols do not take into account refugees or asylum seekers who have disabilities. In fact, as Gregorio Saravia, CERMI delegate for Human Rights and the UN Disability Convention, recognizes, there is not even data on how many or What percentage of refugees have some type of disability?.
This causes these people to be even more helpless, “there is a need for an alliance between the third disability sector and the sector that works with refugees and asylum seekers. And that is what we are trying to do between CERMI, ONCE and UNHCR, in addition to the administration, which “He doesn’t really know how to approach the problem.”says Saravia, “because today, the disability sector lacks knowledge about the international protection system and the international protection system lacked knowledge about disability and the needs of people with disabilities.”
All of this leads to the fact that, once in their destination country, refugees who also have disabilities find themselves with obstacles in assistance and reception because, as the CERMI delegate assures, “it is not just about providing resources, but rather that the resources are adequate, because each person with disabilities has certain very different needs“.
Karima Hassanyarwho has been in Spain for 10 months with her husband Nassir and their son, is one of those people who need specific resources, because Both she and her husband have disabilities.. Both as a result of an explosion, something very common in countries like Afghanistan, which is where they come from. In fact, his brother also has a disabilitywho has stayed in his country with the rest of his family.
They left their country for various reasons, but mainly, as Karima explains, “We left there in 2022, when the Taliban came to powerbecause they don’t let women work or go out without their husbands. Furthermore, people with disabilities have it much more difficult there in every way.”
I left Afghanistan because the Taliban don’t let women work and because people with disabilities have it very difficult there.
In fact, Before the Taliban, they no longer had it easy. She was able to study medicine and He found a job in a Kabul hospital with the Red Crossin which he cared for people with disabilities and where all his healthcare colleagues also had disabilities. The majority, as is the case of her and her husband, with physical disabilities due to explosions, “bombs exploded there every week,” she tells us.
Thanks to a Spanish journalist, he managed, along with other fellow doctors, to leave Afghanistan and take provisional refuge in Iran, from where he was able to request asylum. From there, they arrived at the beginning of the year to Spain, where they are treated NGOs like Rescate and AMAE (Association of Afghan Women in Spain).
Although it is true that they are delighted with the care and help, many of the resources that exist are not adapted for people with disabilities. They both study Spanish, which will undoubtedly open doors for them to work, but, for example, the courses that her husband takes to open doors to the job market are not the most suitable for people who, like him, need a prosthetic leg and have difficulty walking. And she, who worked as an orthopedic doctor, does not have access today – since they live in a small town in Guadalajara – to health professions courses to be able to practice something similar to the profession she did in her country, which is also , what she would like to do, “I want to work in a hospital”, he repeated several times.
With more training for people who work helping refugees, these problems could be minimized, support could be more individualized, “at CERMI we insist on how important pedagogy is in disability issues, and not only with social workers or other people who care for people seeking asylum, also the police, the Civil Guard, NGO staff… that’s why It is important that UNHCR people know about disabilitiesand that CERMI knows about refugeesso that we know what type of difficulties an applicant with a disability may encounter,” insists Gregorio Saravia.
In procedures to obtain disability… and prostheses
When a person who is a refugee enters Spain, he or she has a series of rights included in both national regulations and international regulations ratified by Spain, such as International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilitiesbut, as Gregorio Saravia explains, disability often prevents them from accessing these rights, “in emergency situations, They have the same rights as other people -such as the right to life, to physical integrity, to not be a victim of abuse…-, but they encounter barriers that prevent them from accessing them”, that is, they have to be able to exercise them under conditions of equality with the rest of the people, but his disability makes it difficult for him. To exercise them under equal conditions, they need personalized support. and, above all, accessibility.
In the case of Karima and her husband, it is true that they have healthcare, but not as fast as would be needed in that case. Both she and her husband need new prostheses. to be able to lead a normal life and work. He has had a broken prosthesis for more than a year, but without a specialist to prescribe it, You cannot access it due to its high price. What he has achieved is to obtain the disability card to access some rights, something for which she will have to wait, “they told me that first we have to resolve my husband’s situation, and then we will start with mine,” says Karima, resigned.
They urgently need this recognition, since the benefits they receive as refugees run out and they need at least one of them to work. Without a disability card and without support, they have it more difficult, “we know that people with disabilities have arrived in Spain from conflicts like the one in Ukraine, with all the problems that a person can encounter in such an extreme situation, but with a series of additional needs that had to be addressed. And the truth is that we are not prepared to do so, because neither in Spain nor in other countries is the disability situation of the people who arrive taken into account when the protocols are prepared, the reception spaces are available or when the requirements are established. inclusion itinerariesn. If we have not taken disability into account, we are going to encounter a series of problems and very serious exclusions of rights“says Saravia.
Neither in Spain nor in other countries is the disability situation of the people who arrive taken into account.
From CERMI, together with ONCE, UNHCR and various ministries, they are trying to solve these problems, “the first thing is to become aware that this is a shared responsibility, because No public administration has all the tools to make a reception truly inclusive.. We need cooperation, alliances, public-private collaboration, the third sector… and participation of people with disabilities themselvesand that participation necessarily happens because they have information, they know their rights, they can understand their situation… and that is achieved with accessibility.”
Karima and her husband are looking forward to doing it, to being able to participate and to be able to contribute their bit in a country that has welcomed them with open arms, and they are very clear about how they want to do it, “we would not like to return to Afghanistanbecause it is not a good place for women or people with disabilities to live. “I want to stay and, as I did in my country, work in a hospital to continue helping people with disabilities.”
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