The SoR has spoken out against proposed changes to migrant workers at an event held at parliament last week.
On Monday 14 September, a coalition of Windrush survivors and migrant health workers spoke at the Houses of Parliament on the planned changes to the indefinite leave to remain immigration status policy that would raise the eligibility thresholds for permanent residents in the UK from five years to 10, which could be introduced as early as autumn 2026.
The SoR says the changes would have a severe impact on health workers, their families and the NHS, which remains heavily dependent on migrant workers, highlighting that two million people are set to be affected by the introduction of the earned settlement policy, with many of those being frontline workers during the pandemic.
Supporting the NHS
Paul Awah, advanced MRI radiographer and SoR member who spoke at the event, said: “Migrant workers are not leeches; they do not take up resources from the state and they work double hard. They are here to support the NHS. The rhetoric around migrant workers needs to change.”
Dean Rogers, executive director of industrial strategy and member relations at the SoR, said: “The Society of Radiographers emphatically rejects the government’s earned settlement proposals. The government has a choice – meet your arbitrary immigration targets or fail to meet the waiting list reduction targets or cancer targets. You can’t do both.
“The government’s hostile environment policies are already having an impact. Our members are fearful of the impact on them and their families of these proposals, and patients and their families need to be as well.”
Earlier this year, the SoR responded to the government consultation on extending the period for settled status, saying: “These proposed measures will destabilise and reduce the security of those already here, and their families.”
(Image: Paul Awah (second from the left) with attendees to the event)