By SOLOMON KANTHA
The month of December would be exactly nine years and one month since Lahsen Ouladelhaj from Morocco entered PNG in November 1997.
Lahsen is now 40-years-old, spending almost nine of these years at Ward 8 in Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH).
His story drew curiosity as well as sympathy from many when the media first reported the now-famous case of a young Moroccan who contracted Japanese encephalitis – a severe form of cerebral malaria which totally paralysed him and was bedridden ever since at PMGH.
He is perhaps the only patient that served the longest time at PMGH and was well cared for and fed by doctors and nurses.
Lahsen finally boarded his flight to Morocco, accompanied by two medical escorts, on Monday, December 3, 2007.
Lahsen, accompanied by two medical escorts from PNG, was well received with an emotional welcome on his arrival in the Casablanca province of Morocco and was admitted to the University hospital in Casablanca at the neuro-surgery ward.
He is from the Taroudant Province.
His family was able to learn of his ordeal and regularly follow up on his situation when a Moroccan national who works for the UNAIDS office in Port Moresby read his story in The National and contacted friends in Europe to help set up a Blog on the Internet to find assistance for Lahsen to send him back home.
A French newspaper earlier this year picked up Lahsen’s story from the Internet Blog and also published his story.
Numerous efforts to send him home have been without success because of the financial costs involved.
Lahsen’s travel was made possible by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) which recently set up a new Mission in the country.
One among many of IOM’s role is to assist migrants who wish to voluntarily return home and the assistance provided to Lahsen was based solely on humanitarian grounds because of his medical condition.
IOM has an observer status in PNG and is hoping for PNG to become a permanent member in the near future so that it can assist PNG to effectively regulate and manage migration as well as effectively deal with stranded migrants.
Lahsen perhaps wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for the medical expertise of his treating physician Dr. David Linge and the nurses who endured the difficulties involved in caring and feeding him as he was unable to feed himself.
Due to the severity of his illness when he first arrived at PMGH he underwent a tracheotomy operation which had his vocal cord removed and this has made him incommunicative since.
I later found out that Lahsen has a Masters degree in English literature and can speak English, French, Arabic and even understand the local pidgin because of the many years of interaction with nurses at the hospital.
The medical care given to Lahsen at PMGH surprised many abroad of how a migrant patient was able to survive Japanese encephalitis in an underdeveloped country.
Lahsen was under the care of one of PNG’s best medical doctors, Dr. Linge, who has also been working tirelessly over the years to see the patient return home to his country.
Dr. Linge is a highly-respected practicing and teaching physician at the University of Papua New Guinea’s Medical Faculty and dealt with Lahsen when he was first medevaced to PMGH.
One of the nurses, Sr. Serina Tamita, who took care of Lahsen when he first arrived, was one of the medical escorts that handed Lahsen over to medical authorities in Morocco.
The treatment given to Lahsen as a foreign migrant speaks highly of the humanitarian efforts rendered by PNG’s doctors and nurses.
They have contributed significantly to the country’s international reputation in this humanitarian act of caring for a patient that is not a national and does not have the financial capability to meet his medical costs.
Lahsen’s story and his ordeal is perhaps unfamiliar to many in PNG and the Pacific but it represents the strife of millions of migrants that travel across international borders every year in search of better livelihood and job opportunities.
Most unfortunate people particularly in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America do not have much of a choice as they are forced to cross international borders to other countries because of civil conflicts and wars and if they are lucky, settle in a country that is willing to accept them.
His story also opens up a new dimension of the need for PNG to effectively deal with migration issues and manage migration.
It is important as effectively managing and regulating migration ties in to PNG’s development, investment opportunities, national security, national sovereignty, trade, human rights, health, environment as well as contributing to PNG’s international reputation as in the case of Lahsen.
With the assistance of related international organisations and donor governments PNG should start considering the vitality of providing facilities that are needed to care for and assist migrants to safely return to their home country.
*The writer holds a Masters degree in political science and is attached with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).








 

 

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