Years tied to a bed left Marita crippled

MARITA is 15 years old. Abandoned as a baby, she has spent most of her life tied to a bed in an institution.

She has been a prisoner for years on end, unloved and constantly undernourished in the midst of appalling squalor.

She was restrained for so long that she couldn’t walk, even though her disability never affected the use of her legs.

Marita was condemned to this wretched existence for having the misfortune to be born with a disability in an EU applicant state which doesn’t recognise the human rights of its most vulnerable citizens.

Marita, however, is one of the lucky ones.In the last few months her torment has ended, for the moment at least, thanks to the efforts of an Irish disability organisation.

She has now learned how to walk and goes each day to a small activity centre where she is at last discovering how to live a normal life.

Unfortunately, for thousands of others, the horrible suffering goes on. What happened to Marita and others like her is not the product of willful cruelty; it is largely the result of insufficient resources to meet even basic social needs.

According to Disability Alliance for Europe, voting Yes in the referendum on the Nice Treaty will change all that.