Our illegal migrants form the image of our state abroad
On a hot summer day last year the provincial city of Khmelnytsky received from faraway Israel the body of a 39- year-old worker without his heart. The Ukrainian branch of Interpol began to search for the human organ. Soon after, Israel’s leading newspaper Maariv joined the search. The very headline of a newspaper report reveals that the wife of the worker who died in Israel raises some claims, “They Stole My Husband’s Heart for Transplantation without My Permission.”
The article’s author called Khmelnytsky, only to hear the following cry of the inconsolable widow’s soul. She informed her country’s public on the front page, “The hospital insists that it received the family’s consent to take the heart. Israeli police could launch an investigation soon.”
This would seem to make quite plausible The Day’s version that the heart of the Ukrainian citizen buried in Khmelnytsky remained behind in the country where he had gone to seek a job and find his death. Was the transplant successful? Who exactly was operated upon to feel the pleasures of life? Does he/she know whom and what for he/she owes? Why do the hapless orphans know nothing about the current life of the heart of their father who died in a faraway land?
The Maariv correspondent says that “B., 39, a Ukrainian who worked illegally in Israel, was hospitalized unconscious in Adasa. He was diagnosed as being poisoned with a certain fluid that caused death four days later in the intensive-care unit.” Nothing was reported about the details of treatment which, unfortunately, did not yield the result hoped for and about how and by whose consent the decision to take the heart was made. The widow at least recalls, “We were shocked to see that his body missed the heart. Our two children have cried ever since. I think his body was autopsied to steal the heart.” Most probably, Maariv’s faint-hearted readers were moved very much and wept at these lines. But the widow protests because she had never asked her next of kin “to agree to the transplantation of B.’s organs.” The Maariv correspondent gives the full name of the man who was returned to Khmelnytsky without his heart and that of his wife.
Khmelnytsky medical personnel believe that the fatal poisoning affects the heart, following which the latter “is unfit for transplantation.” The Maariv correspondent turned to Yitzhak Barlowitz, a high official at the Ministry of Public Health of Israel. He confirmed that “B., who was unconscious and then died, was moved from the Adasa hospital to the transplant center. His family was asked for, and we received permission to transplant the organ.”
So who exactly and on what conditions gave consent? The widow claims she never gave any consent. His children are still underage. The grief- stricken parents and elder brother of the deceased are indignant: nobody ever asked them. The dead man’s father told The Day, “Even if I had been asked, I wouldn’t have agreed to this sacrilegious transplant for all the money in the world. I am sure my dear son drank no poison. The people who worked with him in Israel said he never drank anything. Word has it they also took our dear son’s eyes. Some other newspaper of theirs wrote this and is going to send us a copy. They (illegal migrants – Ed.) lie low there, afraid of getting the same deal.”
Doctor Yitzhak Barlowitz told Maariv, “His body was transported to be buried in Ukraine at the transplant center’s expense.” Reliable sources say this funeral transport costs $7000 US. Let the reader forgive me for a banality: nobody can determine the price of a human life. Then on what basis is the price formed for a heart separated from a senseless body to give another body a new lease of life? Israeli healthcare organizer Yitzhak Barlowitz thinks, “Within the existing limits, no emphasis was probably put on legal requirements... We work under strain. It’s common knowledge we work to save life.” To the extent of reducing the life span of an unfortunate illegal worker?.. The medic evades frankly answering the question about responsibility of the person who did the transplant before the laws of his country.
“There have been and will be cases like this,” Mr. Barlowitz told the Israeli newspaper. Meanwhile, here in Khmelnytsky, B.’s widow, skeptical of the official version of her husband’s death, got permission from the local authorities to perform a new postmortem, the conclusion of which left the impression that an Arab suicide terrorist had come to Khmelnytsky and set off the bomb in the most crowded place.
Shortly before, the body of D., also a job-seeker, was brought back to Kamyanets-Podilsky from Israel. Then also the poor wretch’s kith and kin smelled a rat. But people differently react to a sudden misfortune. The hapless widow of D. did not demand anything from either foreign or domestic authorities. Yet, now that the Khmelnytsky heart scandal has caused an outcry, local people are again talking about the dead Mr. D. Perhaps somebody also used his healthy organs to meet somebody else’s demands, without asking for anybody’s consent?
Consider the life story of D. as a serviceman. Born in 1962, he went through a course in laying and clearing land mines, went through the gauntlet of Afghanistan, then did a peacekeeping mission in Yugoslavia. Coming back and failing to find a job, he went to Israel in the hope of putting to use what he was trained for and improving his skills in hot spots. But luck frowned upon him. He found a factory job in Tel Aviv. The official version is that he was killed by an explosion: either something blew up at the factory or he ran into an Arab bomber. Whatever the case, his body was brought to Kamyanets- Podilsky six months later.
Most incredible accusations are now being made in an uptown Khmelnytsky building. This building has already received two dead bodies in zinc-plated coffins from a faraway country in the past month or so. These were the bodies of dead job-seekers, as once were the bodies of Afghan “internationalist fighters.”
Maariv’s correspondent believes that “Israeli police could soon launch an investigation.” This investigation might lead to a scandal that will shake the world or end in nothing. For the fatherland of those who died in a strange land remains silent.
COMMENTARY
Yevhen ZAKHAROV, cochairman, Kharkiv Human Rights Group:
“Staying unlawfully abroad, people thus strip themselves of any legal status and, moreover, break the law of both countries. They become most vulnerable in this legal vacuum and incur the woes which sometimes just stem from the noncompliance with both sets of legislation. But it would be wrong to say that illegal immigrants are completely unprotected: whatever happens, every individual staying outside his country can turn to the embassy or a consulate, which will be obliged to defend his/her rights. If an individual cannot for some reason turn to his/her country’s representation, he/she can use the services of numerous non-governmental human rights organizations which offer legal assistance to migrants. But, ideally, especially if it is the case of a murder or some other grievous crime, the matter should be looked into by the state. Unfortunately, this country will do so only if somebody stubbornly insists on an investigation.”
Serhiy BORODENKOV, chairman, press service, Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
“In no case can one state that an individual who has gone abroad, even illegally, cannot rely on the support of his native state in case his rights have been infringed upon. In this sense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ main task is to defend the interests of Ukrainian citizens abroad, although this task becomes much more complicated in the case of illegals. The point is that a person who leaves this country illegally immediately dooms himself to complete defenselessness: he often suffers oppression, for example, by his employer but does not turn to the embassy or the consulate for help, fearing punishment for his illegal departure. And, since the illegals have no medical insurance, nobody cares about their life and health. This is why we come to know about them only in extreme cases, when an individual has been killed or injured. For this reason we always say that when an individual goes abroad, he must know at least the consulate phone numbers and use them at any time. The state is certain to defend the rights of its citizens, naturally, in compliance with the law in force and bilateral agreements.”
Yevhen BARAN, deputy director for research, Shalimov Institute of Surgery and Transplants:
“The situation in question is very complicated. In general, such thing as transplantation and withdrawal of organs requires very thorough scrutiny, taking into account the specific features of the medical laws in a given country. For example, there are states where the law officially allows medical personnel to take and transplant the organs of a dying person without the knowledge and consent of his next of kin. This kind of decision can be made by a council of doctors, including forensic physicians. Simultaneously, there are countries which ban in principle taking donor organs from foreigners. I cannot say, unfortunately, which specific countries belong to the former and latter categories, but I know with certainly that one should not rush to any conclusions about what happened and accuse anybody without knowing the most minute details.” @TT
