Kobane woman who made it to Germany in wheelchair fights for similar refugees

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The girl from the city of Kobane in Syria, whose extraordinary journey from the war-torn Syria to her final destination in Germany in a wheelchair captured the attention of the world's media, has visited the European parliament on Tuesday to campaign on behalf of the disabled refugees who are currently at refugee camps while they lack basic needs. 

The 18-year-old who now resides in Germany said that she thought at one stage that her being disabled may put the life of her family in danger.

“I thought maybe my family cannot evacuate if something happens because of me,” Nujeen Mustafa said in an event at the European parliament. “We didn’t have a lift and we lived on the fifth floor. It makes you feel like you’re a barrier between your family and safety.”

Nujeen who speaks fluent English she said she learned by watching an American soap opera, and wants to be an astronaut, has since written a book about her exceptionally hard journey to Europe. The book has been translated into a number of other languages. 

"I consider myself one of the lucky ones to what I’ve got in my life now. But being here and sitting in this room, it’s kind of sad fact that in the 21st century, toilets and basic services are considered a luxury for some people," she said. "... all of us, and especially people with disabilities, deserve much better.”

The rights organization Human Rights Watch, who also co-organized the event titled ‘Refugees with Disabilities: Overlooked, Underserved’ released a statement a day before calling on the EU that it should ensure that the aid also reaches people with disabilities.

Many of the refugees from the Middle East begin their journey from Turkey to the neighbouring Greece.

HRW said that it documented the failure of the Greek authorities and their supporting partners to identify people with a disability. It happened when the officials in the camps fail to identify and register disabled people so that they can be relocated to safer areas, where they can have access to better care, for example, by transferring them from the islands to the mainland. 

European Union Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides met with Nujeen at the Parliament, and said that funding rental accommodations outside the camps is a priority for him.

"To see more disabled people to move from camps to rental accommodation. For me, it’s a very important objective to reduce the number of disabled people living in camps," he said. "Because definitely the rental accommodation can give more dignity to the refugees and in particular for the disabled people, and at the same time make our aid more efficient."

Gunta Anca, vice-president of the European Disability Forum and who was also on the panel at the Brussels event said that the disabled people are at a higher risk of violence, including sexual and domestic abuse.
 
“The European Union has the legal obligation to ensure that persons with disabilities are included in its humanitarian response,” Anca said.

Helga Stevens, a member of the European Parliament, who is deaf, is co-chair of the parliament’s Disability Intergroup. She said that she knows that there is a will to address the many issues disabled refugees face, but that lack of resources and awareness remain an obstacle. 

"I notice there is a willingness, however, there [are] issues with lack of resources. That’s a serious problem, we need to be able to provide them with more training and more opportunities. So that they can learn about the need and rights of people with disabilities."

Determined and optimistic, Nujeen arrived in Germany in 2015. She had already been on the road for 20 days when the news cameras caught up with her on the Hungarian border, where she was among the many refugees trying to get to Germany.

Having a disability since birth, Nujeen hopes that advanced healthcare in Germany, where she applied for asylum, could help her walk for the first time.

Nujeen and her older sister, Nisreen, trekked thousands of miles through Greece, Macedonia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia before reaching Germany, where she was united with her brother, Bland, who had sought asylum there earlier.

From Croatia she entered Slovenia, where she was arrested and detained, and released only after pressure from human rights activists.