Members of Britain’s parliament have called for frontline healthcare workers who are also foreign nationals to be granted indefinite leave to remain as a way of honouring their work during the pandemic
Members of parliament have written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, urging her to grant indefinite leave to remain to foreign nationals working in the National Health Service and their families as a gesture of gratitude for those who have put their lives at risk for Britain.
It is widely acknowledged that a large proportion of frontline healthcare workers originate from outside of the UK. Both of the nurses who had direct care of prime minister Boris Johnson when he was hospitalised with COVID-19 were expatriates, one having originally come to the UK from New Zealand and the other from Portugal. The first four doctors to have died from coronavirus in the UK Dr Alfa Saadu, Amged el-Hawrani, Adil El Tayar, and GP Dr Habib Zaidi, also had ancestry that hailed from other jurisdictions.
Patel recently announced a free-of-charge, one-year extension for 2,800 foreign doctors, nurses and paramedics whose visas were due to expire by October 1, 2020 but it was felt that this move does not go far enough to recognise the sacrifices that such persons have made for the country.
