Migrant health and care workers deserve better than this

The Guardian

23-02-2025

John Harris's article mentions the March 2024 rules banning new migrant care workers from bringing dependants (In an NHS ward I saw how Britain relies on immigrants. Yet still we tell them they're not wanted, 16 February).
Less well known is that thousands of health and care workers who arrived before this date have also been prevented from bringing their children – most of them single mothers. A report published on 22 January by Action for Southern Africa and Women of Zimbabwe revealed that thousands of single mothers, from Zimbabwe and elsewhere, settled into their jobs only to then be denied visas for their children, who were waiting back home to join them.
These mothers – looking after our loved ones every day – have been separated from their children for years now, making multiple costly visa applications (some exploited by unscrupulous legal advisers in the process), because of Home Office refusals based on their concept of 'sole responsibility'. This is a concept created by the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) which is incredibly hard for single mothers to prove, as it extends further than the internationally recognised notion of 'sole custody'.
Our report reveals lack of clarity about what documents the UKVI will accept as proof, inconsistent application of its own guidelines, and evidence of so-called hostile environment tactics to cause delays in decision-making.
The impact is devastating on everyone. One mother from Zimbabwe was separated from her two girls for almost two years. It took six applications before she was granted the visas (three for each child). Eight similar cases are documented in our report, but thousands of children remain in limbo. Why is it deemed acceptable for children from southern Africa to be kept apart from their mothers for extended periods of time? Echoes of Windrush abound.Tricia SibbonsDirector, Action For Southern AfricaPatricia ChinyokaFounder, Women of Zimbabwe
I wholeheartedly agree with John Harris and the 'bitter absurdity' of the situation both in the NHS and the care sector. Last summer, my 90-year-old mother collapsed and was taken to A&E in Worthing. The department was massively busy, patients were being cared for in the corridor and ambulances were arriving with alarming regularity. The bay my mother was in was staffed by two nurses from overseas, who cared for all their patients with exemplary professionalism and kindness.
I was, however, horrified to hear overtly racist comments being made by patients, with one declaiming loudly: 'Look what has happened to our NHS.' Bitter absurdity indeed. I left the department feeling immensely grateful to the staff and incredibly angry and embarrassed by what I had witnessed. Sally Smith Worthing, West Sussex
John Harris's article is timely, but immigrants and their offspring are not only the backbone of the NHS. My Guardian is delivered by an Indian, and my teeth are maintained by an Indian. Our postman of 20 years is Chinese; our local station is opened and closed at ungodly hours by a Nigerian woman; our supermarket tills are almost exclusively staffed by south Asians; our cat is regularly jabbed by people from Spain, Poland and India; and the drivers on our local bus route have recently included people from Ghana, Nepal, Somalia and Albania.
In addition to all these good people, when I fell downstairs and broke my fibula five years ago, it was excellently repaired by a Turkish Cypriot. This demonising of migrants has to be exposed for the evil that it is. Remember that the Hallelujah Chorus was written by an economic migrant.Warwick HillmanPinner, London
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