AN NHS worker who has been working long shifts on a coronavirus ward during the pandemic says new immigration plans will lead to refugees like her being turned away from the UK
Mariam, who came to the UK from Eritrea in East Africa, has been working 12-hour shifts in a Leeds hospital – sometimes four days in a row.
The NHS worker, whose name was changed to protect her identity, was granted asylum after her arrival in the UK and works as a clinical support worker, on the frontline of the Covid crisis.
She told the Independent: “The UK gave me an opportunity and now I’m working. I don’t want to be dependent on the Government. I’m working and if I’m asked to help, I will help.”
READ MORE: ‘Scots didn’t vote for this’: Priti Patel slammed for immigration plan claims
She added that Home Office plans to overhaul the immigration system may well have seen her application for asylum rejected due to the fact that she came to Britain in the back of a lorry in 2009, fleeing persecution and imprisonment in Eritrea.
Mariam said: “When I left Eritrea, I didn’t know if I was going to live or die. I just knew I had to get out. Every day, I thank God for bringing me here, and secondly, I thank the people of the UK who saved me.”
Under Patel's proposals for immigration reform, the way people enter the UK will have an impact on claims for asylum and what their status is in the UK.
Patel has said that claims from people who "travelled through a safe country first in which they could and should have claimed asylum" would be deemed inadmissible and efforts would be made to remove them, under her proposed plans.
The UK Government has claimed that for the year ending September 2019, more than 60% of asylum claims were from people who deemed to have entered the UK “illegally”.
The plans have been described as "deeply troubling" by a group of more than 200 organisations, including the Scottish Refugee Council, Asylum Matters, British Red Cross and Freedom from Torture.
Together with Refugees is calling for a more fair and humane approach to the UK’s asylum system.
Sabir Zazai, Together With Refugees spokesperson and a refugee himself, said: “Abandoning people fleeing war and persecution, including women and children, is not who we are in the UK.”
READ MORE: 'Inflammatory and divisive': Angus Robertson slams Priti Patel after immigration speech
A Home Office spokesperson said the current asylum system is “broken” and the new plan would help people based on need.
“We make no apology for seeking to fix a system which is being exploited by human traffickers, who are encouraging women and children to risk their lives crossing the Channel.”
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