Lack of assistance to mine victims in Greece beginning to hit the headlines

(Tuesday 10 February 2004 )

Two influential Greek dailies - Ta Nea and Eleftherotypia - have recently run articles on the plight of asylum seekers crippled in minefield accidents on the country’s border with Turkey and left to fend for themselves in Greece once discharged from hospital.

The BBC's Radio 5 Live and Radio 4 have also covered the situation, sending reporters to Greece to meet and interview landmine survivors.

Two of the subjects of this media attention - Gouma Dukomana and Radwan Kharbouche - told how after extensive stays in hospital, they found themselves abandoned on the streets of Athens. Gouma had spent six months in hospital after losing his right leg, and Radwan had spent 11 months after losing both his legs and the use of his right arm. Both these young men have ill-fitting artificial limbs, but are grateful to private individuals in the hospitals for raising money for the prostheses. Both need further expensive operations.

This is not a new phenomenon in Greece. Early in 2000, as the Landmine Monitor researcher for Greece, I wrote an article for the local English-language newspaper, Athens News, on two young Iraqi-Kurd landmine victims. These men were part of a group of 31 refugees who stepped on landmines in November 1999. Six were killed in this incident and 16 wounded. The two young men, Nizar and Fouad, were then living in a tent, attending hospital as outpatients, and both needing further operations.

Also, there are other recent landmine victims besides Gouma and Radwan. There are over 13 documented asylum seeker amputees in Greece who are, to quote a representative of a local NGO: "…an extremely vulnerable category of asylum seekers ... they are faced not only with medical problems, but housing and economic problems... obviously there is no official financial assistance for them..."

They have not only lost their limbs, they have also lost their futures and their hope.