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full screenGaza’s healthcare system is close to collapse, according to EU commissioners. Archive image. Photo: Ramez Habboub/AP/TT
The EU Commission requests that Sweden receive and care for seriously ill patients from Gaza.
The Center Party and the Left Party say yes – and want the government to deal with the issue quickly.
– It is a human obligation and something that the European Commission has requested. Gaza’s entire healthcare system has collapsed, says Center Party EU Member of Parliament Abir Al-Sahlani.
Last week, the European Commission sent a letter to EU member states, including the Swedish Ministry of Social Affairs, with a request to accept patients from Gaza. These may be chronically seriously ill people who need specialist care.
The two commissioners Stella Kyriakides and Janez Lenarcic write in the letter that the patients’ lives are in danger if they do not receive care.
“It is crucial that we can quickly evacuate these patients to hospitals outside Gaza.”
C: 200 people
The WHO has identified 9,000 seriously ill people, including women and children. For the Swedish part, if they were to be distributed based on population, that means around 200 patients, according to Abir Al-Sahlani.
– We have to make sure to fix this outside of the regular healthcare mission, she says and adds that the healthcare places can be financed through the aid budget.
Even the leader of the Left Party, Nooshi Dadgostar, thinks that Sweden should heed the request.
– It is a very good proposal. Of course we will show up.
The question is how the patients will be taken out of Gaza. Flights in and out of the area are currently impossible and the people will likely have to cross the Rafah border crossing, which Israel controls.
Fly via Echo
– If the EU and Sweden listen to this, you can rely on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to release these people who need this medical help.
According to Al-Sahlani, the sick can be evacuated by vehicle and air from Egypt by the Commission’s agency Echo (Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid).
She emphasizes that there is already an intelligence system at the border crossing, a kind of screening where people are put on a list, to prevent people with connections to the terrorist movement Hamas from leaving the area.
TT has contacted Foreign Minister Tobias Billström (M) for a comment.