Hundreds of migrant care workers demonstrated outside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, demanding Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood scrap proposed changes to settlement rules. Protesters brandished chains and called on Andy Burnham to tear up the controversial plans, which would treble their qualification time for settlement.
Protesters demand promises be kept
Speaking at the demonstration, care worker Barbara Tanyanyiwa told The Mirror: "They promised us five years, so we want them to keep the promise. We want Shabana Mahmood to keep the promise, we do not want them to change the goalposts when we are already at the doorstep."
Ms Tanyanyiwa, from Zimbabwe, added: "We are glad that the Prime Minister is talking about revamping the care sector. Yes, we are with him, but we are saying do not revamp it without us, because there is nothing without us."
Chukwuemeka Aluu, who took part in a procession depicting care workers in shackles, said the proposals were a betrayal of thousands who keep the care sector afloat. He said: "Our people are dying in silence. Some of them cannot even voice their concerns for fear of being victimised at the place of work, for fear of the Home Office cancelling their visa and sending them home."
Plans to extend settlement wait
Ms Mahmood has put forward plans to double the standard wait for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from five years to 10. For migrant care workers, the qualification period would increase to 15 years if the proposals go ahead. The government is expected to announce its final decision later this year after a consultation attracted more than 200,000 responses.
Mr Burnham, who has pledged to tackle Britain's broken care system by creating a new National Care Service, said he recognised the work of migrant care workers. Telling LBC: "There's a range of views that have gone into that consultation," he insisted the system would not work "without them".
Union criticises 'broken promise'
Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said: "The NHS, social care and other essential services rely on the hard work of migrant staff. People who came to this country to help look after our loved ones are forced to work on restricted visas under harsh rules which make them second class citizens.
"Now the promise of being able to settle in the country after five years is not only being broken but replaced with the threat of 15 years of insecurity and exploitation. Moving the goalposts at this stage in the game is wrong and unfair. Migrant workers must not be made scapegoats for decades of political failure to invest in public services."
At the moment everyone who comes to the UK on a work visa is eligible after five years. Ms Mahmood wants to create an 'earned citizenship' model, extending the standard wait to 10 years, but with the option to reduce this through community work and volunteering. She argues people must abide by the rules at the point they apply for ILR, not when they entered the country. NHS doctors and high earners will have shorter routes to settlement if the proposals go ahead.
