A migrant woman (born in 1997) from Africa, who was denied asylum in Lithuania, died on Wednesday, the Lithuanian Red Cross confirmed to LRT.lt. This is the first known death of a migrant who has entered Lithuania from Belarus.
The news of the woman’s death was first reported by Sienos Grupė (Border Group), an NGO that provides assistance to irregular migrants. According to the organisation, the deceased did not receive asylum, but stayed in Lithuania, moved out of a migrant accommodation facility, and had found work in Vilnius.
According to Red Cross representative Luka Lesauskaitė, Red Cross workers had been in contact with the deceased woman for some time and had been helping her. She had health issues.
“She had been locked up in the Foreigners’ Registration Centre for about a year and had been living in freedom for about half a year. Our mentors helped her and her friends to stay in a hostel,” she said.
A few weeks ago, the woman felt unwell and called an ambulance.
“The only help that is free for people with this status is [emergency care], everything else they need to pay for,” said Lesauskaitė.
The international organisation Doctors without Borders (MSF) gave money to cover the woman’s doctor visit. On the day she died, she had an appointment for a gynaecological procedure and was accompanied by the Red Cross.
“My colleagues said that everything seemed to be fine. She said she was feeling well, even though it was obvious that all was not well. They got off at the clinic, started walking and heard that she had fallen. They started to resuscitate her, called the doctors, but they could not revive her, so the ambulance came and took her to the Santaros Clinic,” said Lesauskaitė.
Later, the Red Cross received the news that the woman was in a coma and passed away on Wednesday afternoon.
Lesauskaitė says it is difficult to say whether the fact that she had been unwell for a long time but had limited access to healthcare could have contributed to the death.
“All things are paid services, except for the ambulance. In this case, she got it when she was unwell. [...] And beyond that, everything costs money. In this case, MSF is a big help to all migrants. We don’t know if she had any comorbidities, but a colleague of mine saw some medication in her handbag when she fell. But we have no information as to why she did not even make it to the procedure. But yes, access to medical services is not easy because they are paid, they [migrants] only get emergency care,” said the Red Cross representative.
VSAT: migrants in accommodation centres get healthcare
People who are denied asylum in Lithuania, but remain in the country and live in private accommodation, are not covered by national health insurance and do not have the possibility to get it. They only receive emergency medical care.
LRT.lt has previously reported that, for some time, many asylum-seeking women from the Middle East and Africa had to pay for hospital services when they needed hospitalisation.
According to the State Border Guard Service (VSAT) spokesman Giedrius Mišutis, the VSAT has no knowledge about the woman’s death. According to him, if she had moved out of the VSAT’s Foreigners Registration Centre in Pabradė, she would have had to check in once a week and report her whereabouts. There are more such migrants living independently.
“Their right to live in the Foreigners Registration Centre is not restricted. They can live in a place of their choice and check in periodically at the Foreigners Registration Centre,” he said.
He said that if she had lived in Pabradė instead of independently, she would have received all medical services and been examined by doctors free of charge.
Vilnius University’s Santaros Clinic did not disclose details about the cause of the migrant woman’s death.
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