article sur The national newspaper

A MOROCCAN, who had been admitted to the Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH) for almost nine years, has finally been flown back to Morocco, thanks to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Lahsen Ouladelhaj, who contracted Japanese encephalitis – a severe form of celebral malaria, which paralysed him and was bedridden ever since he entered PNG in 1997, was flown back home last Monday.
He was accompanied by two medical escorts.
Ouladelhaj, 40, had been cared for free for almost nine years by Ward 8 nurses at PMGH.
According to IMO’s Solomon Kantha, Ouladelhaj’s family was eagerly waiting his arrival in the Taroudant province of Morocco.
“His family was able to learn of his ordeal and regularly followed up on his situation when a Moroccan national, who works for the UNAIDS office in Port Moresby, read his story in The National and contacted friends in Europe to help set up a blog on the internet to find assistance for Ouladelhaj to send him back home,” Mr Kantha stated.
A French newspaper earlier this year published Ouladelhaj’s story after picking it from the internet blog.
Numerous efforts to send him home have been without success because of the financial costs involved. Ouladelhaj’s travel was made possible by the IOM which recently set up a new mission in the country.
According to The National report on June 8, 2006, Ouladelhaj left Morocco hoping to sneak his way into Australia and find work, but his dream ended tragically with a mosquito bite.
He got as far as Daru Island, hoping to get to Australia through Torres Strait, where he contracted Japanese encephalitis.
He breathes through a hole in his neck after undergoing a tracheotomy.


http://www.thenational.com.pg/121107/Nation%2027.htm