"After 25 years of giving blood, they denied me attention in Catalan"

PalmaThe Acció Cassandra association has filed a criminal complaint before the courts of Palma against the Balearic Islands Blood and Tissue Bank Foundation for an alleged case of linguistic discrimination that occurred in February in Palma. According to the entity, a 65-year-old man who had been a donor for more than 25 years had to leave without completing the donation because the on-call doctor refused to attend to him in Catalan and demanded that he speak in Spanish.

The association maintains that the facts could constitute a hate crime and crimes against fundamental rights related to discrimination in access to a public service. For this reason, it has asked the courts to investigate the case, identify the doctor involved, and transfer the proceedings to the Prosecutor's Office specialized in hate crimes.

According to the complaint, the donor, identified as Gabriel, attended a blood donation campaign as he had habitually done for decades. During the previous medical interview, however, the healthcare professional allegedly informed him that he would not attend to him in Catalan and requested that he continue the conversation in Spanish. Faced with this situation, the affected person decided to abandon the process without being able to make the donation.

Acció Cassandra considers that the refusal to provide the service in Catalan constitutes a violation of the donor's linguistic rights and discriminatory treatment. The entity bases the complaint on various precepts of the Penal Code and also on European regulations that prohibit discrimination based on language or membership in a national minority.

Apologies from the Blood Bank

Following the complaint filed by the donor, the Medical Directorate of the Blood Bank sent him an email apologizing for the events. In this document, to which the complaint refers, the institution admits that "in no case should he have left without being able to donate blood" and acknowledges that donors have the right to be attended to in Catalan, as the native language of the Balearic Islands.

The Blood Bank also announced the implementation of internal measures with the aim of preventing similar situations from recurring in the future. Despite this acknowledgment, Acció Cassandra considers that the apologies do not exempt them from possible responsibilities. "We are not facing a simple incident, but a case of serious linguistic discrimination that has prevented a blood donation and that we consider to be indicatively constitutive of a crime of hatred and against fundamental rights," states the president of the entity and lawyer, Lluís Gibert. The association defends that the case transcends the administrative sphere and maintains that the linguistic rights recognized by public institutions must be able to be exercised effectively in all public services.