Over 50,000 sign petition to stop deportations of thousands of NHS nurses

Over 50,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Home Office to make nurses exempt from new immigration laws to stop them being deported.

The new law which comes into force in 2016, means workers recruited from outside the EU since 2011 who earn less than £35,000 a year, will have to return to their countries of origin after six years.

These immigration laws will force many foreign nurses working in the UK to return home, leaving the UK with a severe shortage of nurses and putting patients’ lives at risk, according to nursing leaders.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN says the change in law will “cause chaos for the NHS”.

The Care2 petition, which has been launched by NHS nurse Jacqui Berry calls on the Home Office to include nurses on the list of occupations which are exempt from the new immigration rules.

After working a 14-and-a-half hour shift, she delivered a powerful attack toward Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt nearly a month ago via a YouTube video. Since then, she has launched a Care2 petition to protect her fellow NHS colleagues whom she feels are being discriminated against.

She said: “The UK will be sending away nurses who have contributed to the NHS for six years. Losing their skills and knowledge and then having to start the cycle again and recruit to replace them is completely illogical.

“The crisis the NHS faces could have been avoided had Westminster invested in training instead of cutting it.”

She added: “My migrant colleagues make an enormous contribution but now those we have relied on for years face having to leave, which is unfair. The Government can still avoid this chaos. Please sign my petition now to tell the Home Office to add nurses to the list of occupations exempt from its new immigration rules.”

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published a report recently called ‘International Recruitment 2015', which calculates that up to 3,365 nurses currently working in the UK will potentially be affected and estimates that it will have cost the NHS £20.19m to recruit them - money which will have been wasted if they are forced to leave the UK.

To view the petition go to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/464/576/180/