Iranians seek medical asylum in Europe as healthcare system collapses

Due to medication shortages in Iran, families of patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) are seeking asylum in Europe amid Iran’s collapsing healthcare system.

According to the Ham-Mihan newspaper, patients are seeking refuge in countries like Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.

As death rates among SMA patients have also risen sharply, with over 50 people having died since last year, the crisis is worsening in Iran where a flood of medical professionals have fled to seek work abroad.

Saeed Azamian, former director of the SMA Association, said the situation worsened after medication for children under 11 was halted last December, leading to the deaths of at least 20 children suffering from the genetic neuromuscular disease.

In March, Iran International reported that 10 children had died in one month alone as a result of the crisis.

A report published last year also noted that of the 781 patients registered in Iran by October 2022, 164 patients died, the majority of them during the first 20 months of life.

Over the past three years, patients and their families have protested against the Ministry of Health for failing to import or distribute the medication.

Families are selling their homes and belongings to pay brokers and immigration lawyers to seek asylum in European countries. The report cited the case of a woman named only as Zahra, who fled to the Netherlands with her sick six-year-old son. They now live in a camp but receive the expensive medication he needs for free.

Families had previously relied on campaigns for medication, but donations dwindled after President Ebrahim Raisi promised the government would supply the necessary drugs, a promise he failed to keep.

Months passed before the partial import of medicines began and patients had been paying up to 250 million tomans per bottle of Risdiplam syrup, a costly treatment for SMA. The medication was not part of Iran's official drug list until late 2021.

The Ministry of Health claimed it would assess the drug's effectiveness, but results were delayed while the efficacy of drugs like Spinraza and Risdiplam has already been proven in multiple other countries.