Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP has criticised the Home Office’s announcement that it will extend visas by a year for 3,000 NHS medical workers and their families, describing it as “incommensurate with the superhuman effort migrant workers are putting into the fight against coronavirus”.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, Shadow Immigration Minister, said:
“The current crisis is showing yet again that the 29% of non-British NHS doctors are completely indispensable to our healthcare system.
“The Home Office’s announcement that it will extend the visas of migrant doctors, nurses, paramedics and their families is a piecemeal show of gratitude. It is completely incommensurate with the superhuman effort migrant workers are putting into the fight against coronavirus.
“Successive immigration policies have no doubt exacerbated key worker shortages. With outstanding staffing gaps in the NHS, there’s no justification for not granting NHS key workers indefinite leave to remain.
“Lest we forget, migrants helped build our NHS. The sheer number of British lives these key workers save every year more than earns them the right to live theirs in this country.”
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Notes
- ‘Coronavirus: Thousands of foreign NHS workers to have UK visas extended for one year’, The Independent, (31st March 2020), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-nhs-visa-doctor-nurse-paramedics-home-office-migrants-a9438211.html
For further information about this press release, please contact Ollie Collard, Communications Officer, Office of the Shadow Immigration Officer, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP at oliver.collard@parliament.uk.