Social entities express their concern about the growing needs to serve families who travel to Barcelona, from Peru, in search of a treatment that will cure their children suffering from cancer. Parents organize collections in their country and sell what they can to pay for plane tickets and urgently go to a hospital in the Catalan capital in the hope of accessing treatment. The Health Department of the Generalitat confirms that, between June 2022 and December 31, 2023, it recorded 110 cases of minors from Latin America, of which around 80% were from Peru, admitted to the oncology areas of health centers. From the capital. The Service for Immigrants, Emigrants and Refugees (Saier) of Barcelona City Council also expresses its concern about the complexity of managing aid to this group, people with few resources who demand accommodation for long periods of time.
The majority of those who come to Barcelona are minors suffering from advanced oncological processes, although young people of legal age also come. This is the case of Jeffrey, who at the age of 21 was diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “First he received chemotherapy but in 2022 he relapsed and at the INEN, the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases, in Lima, they told us that the only option was a bone marrow transplant from his brother, but it was not possible as they were not compatible. . We were investigating, first I looked in Argentina and then we found out that there was a hospital in Barcelona where many Peruvians had been. This was our only option, otherwise Jeffrey would die,” explains his mother, Karen, in the apartment provided to them by the Càritas Habitatge Social foundation in Torre Baró.
The path taken by Jeffrey is the same one that dozens of Peruvian families have followed in the last year. “As soon as I landed in Barcelona I took my son to the emergency room, then I stayed in a hostel and later I turned to Saier thanks to the instructions given to me by the hospital's social worker,” he adds. Karen asks not to make public the name of the health center that cares for Jeffrey. A few days later, she processed the registration in Barcelona and the health card. He also obtained temporary residence authorization for humanitarian reasons.
In December 2022, his mother's bone marrow transplant was performed, as three other donors were ruled out. Two months later, Jeffrey felt unwell and in April doctors told them there was little hope he would overcome the illness. His father, Jair, and his little brother, 13, flew to Barcelona to accompany him and say goodbye to him. But in July he improved and is now stable. The four have returned to live together and rule out returning to Peru. Karen, an administrator at the Ministry of Education, works remotely.
When he was at the INEN in Peru, Jeffrey, who is now 26 years old, met other kids in the same situation who had traveled to Catalonia and who told him about their experience from Barcelona. Word of mouth and social networks encourage sick people to seek to save the lives of their children in Spain. “It is hard to think that by being born in one place you have the option to live and that by being born in another you will die. Even if they tell you that nothing can be done, a lot of expectations are generated,” Karen reflects. She coincided in the Barcelona hospital with five Peruvian patients, of which two died.
But the bulk of people with cancer who travel to Barcelona are minors, most of whom go directly to Sant Joan de Déu (SJD). Every year in Catalonia, between 170 and 200 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in children up to 14 years of age, 25% of whom suffer from leukemia. The Generalitat specifies that in a year and a half, the aforementioned 110 from Latin America were attended to, of which about 90 from Peru.
In recent months, Salut has met with different hospitals, including SJD, Clínic and Vall d'Hebron; with the consulate and embassy of Peru, and with the Peruvian Center of Barcelona to investigate the reason for this high influx and look for solutions. The objective is for the Ministry of Health of the Andean country to transfer doctors who do not push their patients to come to Catalonia and that, in cases where it is the only way out, the trip to Catalonia is regulated through agreements. It should be noted that the treatments last several months and that the cost can reach 400,000 euros. “Being supportive causes a knock-on effect and puts stress on the health system, it is difficult to find the balance,” says a doctor who prefers to remain anonymous.
“It is a social issue, which already started before covid; The Generalitat informed us when it detected the increase in arrivals. But how is immigration controlled?” responds Joe Torres, deputy consul of Peru. Salut affirms that there is no collapse, although he does fear that word of mouth and social networks will cause an increase in arrivals that is difficult to assume.
The point is that families also need social help to survive away from home, as warned by Saier, which last year allocated one million euros to pay for stays in boarding houses for parents and siblings of admitted children, a total of 97 people. , most of Peru. Currently, 32 are still housed by Saier. “It generates contradictions for us because it is not provided for in the social services portfolio, we look for solutions through specialized foundations, but if we do not find them we offer them pensions,” explains Sonia Fuertes, Social Action Commissioner of the City Council.
The fact that Peruvians, like other nationalities in South America, do not require an entry visa to the European Union facilitates access to healthcare, says the head of Migration at Càritas, Elisabet Ureña. This entity has received between one and two requests for accommodation per month from this group. The Villavecchia foundation also comments on the difficulties in responding to everyone. Of the seven apartments intended for children with cancer and their families while the treatment lasts in Barcelona, one has been decided to be reserved for this group. “The hospitals ask us for support and although resources are limited, no one is left on the streets, but we fear that if arrivals continue to increase, it will not be sustainable. The entities work as a network and share the answers, but it is necessary to better dimension the social part,” explains Anna Varderi, manager of this foundation.
All the sources consulted agree that the arrival of pediatric oncology patients without resources and helpless in their country is a very uncomfortable issue, difficult to communicate so as not to encourage more desperate people to travel and also to prevent racist discourses from arising.
