Jordan Times
Friday, November 3, 2006
Iraqi children not denied vaccines, gov’t says
AMMAN (IRIN) — The government and the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) this week denied claims that government health
centres are refusing to vaccinate Iraqi children whose families are living in
Jordan illegally.
Officials from the Ministry of Health said all foreign nationals in Jordan can
benefit from vaccination programmes even if they did not have residency permits.
“All foreign residents, including Iraqis, can take their children within the age
of vaccination to the nearest health centres to immunise them,” Radhi Jawarneh,
Health Ministry spokesman, said.
He added that the decision was taken “to prevent the spread of diseases that
have been eradicated, such as polio.”
UNICEF officials, on their part, said the government was committed to
vaccinating all foreigners despite their status.
But several Iraqis contacted by IRIN said that their children were denied
vaccinations because they did not have residency permits.
“Government-run health centres refuse to vaccinate my children because I do not
have a residency permit. I tried with UNICEF but they also turned me down,” said
Mohammad Saad, 42, who fled violence in Iraq three years ago.
Since then, he and his wife have had two children who they worry will catch any
number of debilitating diseases — such as measles, whooping cough and tetanus —
that young children are susceptible to if not vaccinated. Saad added that he
cannot afford vaccines in private clinics.
Without refugee status and without a residency permit or valid tourist visa,
Saad lives in Jordan illegally.
Saad’s monthly income from his unofficial job at a car maintenance garage in Ain
Al Basha, 20km west of Amman, is the equivalent of $120 a month, half of which
he spends on house rent.
“It is already very hard to provide my children with food, let alone other basic
needs. How do you expect me to pay for their vaccines?” said Saad.
Vaccines in Jordan cost between $150 and $200. The Ministry of Health does not
control these prices though it said that it provides Jordanians and foreigners
free vaccines against preventable diseases such as polio, tetanus, diphtheria,
pertussis [whooping cough], measles and tuberculosis.
Saad and other Iraqi nationals say they tried several times to vaccinate their
children at government health centres but were denied.
Thousands of Iraqis have fled their country to Jordan over the past
decade-and-a- half, initially after Iraq was hit by UN-imposed sanctions and
then after the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.
Iraqi professionals — such as doctors, university professors and businessmen —
got Jordanian residency permits quite easily. The Ministry of Interior estimates
that there are nearly 300,000 Iraqis in Jordan holding such permits.
Hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis, however, were given three-month tourist
visas, which have to be renewed by exiting and reentering the country, or else
pay a fine of $2 for each day overstayed.
Because of lack of money to do this, the Interior Ministry says there are now
some 400,000 illegal Iraqis living in Jordan. They are mostly found in the
highly populated cities of Amman, Zarqa and Irbid.
Maha Homsi, UNICEF’s project office manager of Child Protection and Early
Childhood, said it was possible that these Iraqis avoid sending their children
to be vaccinated at government-run health centres for fear of being discovered
as illegal residents and being deported.
Handyman Abdul Sattar, 32, has four children, none of whom has been vaccinated,
he said.
“I left Iraq to save my children from dying in the bombings, but death is
following us in another form. I am afraid I will see them die slowly in front of
me eyes because of disease,” he said.