Second Afghan Boy Dies of Mushroom Poisoning in Poland

A six-year-old boy Afghan boy evacuated from Kabul has died in Poland after eating poisonous mushrooms, doctors said on Friday, a day after the death of his five-year-old brother.

The two boys arrived in Poland with their family on August 23 after the Taliban takeover and were in quarantine at a migrant facility in the town of Podkowa Lesna near Warsaw. “The child’s death has been registered,” the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw said in a statement.

The six-year-old had received a liver transplant earlier this week but his condition did not improve. The hospital said the children ate the mushrooms the day after they arrived in as yet unexplained circumstances.

The Office for Foreigners, which runs migrant centres in Poland, said a total of five people had required medical assistance for stomach problems but that they had not initially said they had eaten mushrooms.

The brothers and their 17-year-old sister were taken to hospital on August 26 and 27. The sister was later discharged. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident.

Jakub Dudziak, a spokesman for the Office for Foreigners, had denied a press report that the children had eaten the mushrooms because they were not being fed sufficiently at the centre.

Evacuees are given “three meals a day, consisting of varied ingredients with appropriate calorific value, including dairy products, meat, vegetables, fruit and drinks.

“In connection with this unfortunate accident, employees of centres for foreigners will sensitise Afghan citizens not to consume products of unknown origin,” Dudziak said.

The news portal OKO.press reported that the children’s father, an accountant, worked for several years for the British army.

After the Taliban victory, the family was evacuated by the Polish military at Britain’s request.

Poland evacuated 1,231 people from Afghanistan, including many on behalf of third countries and international organisations such as the European Union.

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