The hospitals in Iran are refusing to treat the Afghan nationals amid coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it has been reported.
Hosting around 3 million Afghan refugees and migrants, the country witnessed the worst outspread of the disease where 14,991 cases of coronavirus have been reported while the disease has reportedly killed 853 people.
Recalling the ordeal of his family in Tehran, the 26-year-old Rafih, who works as a waiter Kabul, told The Middle East Eye that the Iranian doctors refused to admit his 60-year-old grandmother who was suffering from coronavirus disease.
“We can’t treat her … we have too many of our own [Iranian] patients … don’t bring Afghans to us,” the Iranian doctors said, according Rafih.
Adding further to Rafih’s ordeal, three women from his family also developed the symptoms of coronavirus as his father was already recovering from open-hurt surgery and was told that he would not survive if he catches the disease.
This comes as thousands of Afghans living in Iran were forced to return to Afghanistan after facing discrimination and prejudice when seeking health services.
Citing the International Organization for Migration (IOM), The Middle East Eye reported that more than 19,000 Afghans left Iran and entered the Western Afghan provinces of Herat and Nimroz during the first week of March.
There are concerns that the massive return of the Afghan refugees and migrants from Iran could further result into the outbreak of the disease in Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Public Health officials have said all of 22 cases of coronavirus in Afghanistan are travel related, specifically having links with the travel or time spent in Iran.
All the doctors and health care workers have special obligations internationally to entertain all the patients suffering from emergency diseases. Iran has a very civilized nation for thousands of years & I don’t expect at ly from Iranians such an attitude towards Afghan patients