ONE of my brothers is now terminally ill. He wanted to spend time at home with his wife, but he is now frail and needs a lot of support. The hospice he’d spent several weeks in provided a live-in carer.
Lu is a young Zimbabwean woman whose gentle kindness has been a great comfort. She has a two-year-old daughter who is being looked after by her mother-in-law back in their home country, while Lu and her husband work in England to send home. Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in the world. Last year the inflation rate was almost 105%.
She is one of many migrant workers forced to make this terrible choice to leave their children behind while they try to earn a living many thousands of miles away.
Just like the health care workers, mainly from Kerala in India, and the Philippines, who took to the streets of Dublin last week to protest about the low pay rates that keep them separated from their families.
Read more:
Mary Kelly: Israeli revenge will only fuel more violence
Mary Kelly: If politics is a quagmire here, across the water it's surreal
Around 1,000 non EU workers – many of them trained nurses – were recruited to work as healthcare assistants, providing care to the sick and elderly in private nursing and residential homes in Ireland, in a scheme started in 2021.
But to be able to apply for a visa for a spouse they need to earn a minimum salary of €30,000, while to bring one child over it’s €33,000. Most of them earn just €27,000, which is lower than local health service staff in similar jobs.
They want the Irish government to grant them family status, giving them a critical skills permit, rather than a general employment permit, which would allow them to bring their families over here.
These migrant workers are to be found all over the country, north and south, and all across Britain. The health service would collapse without them, yet they aren’t being properly paid for the vital work they do.
Maybe we should think more about the great sacrifices these people are paying to plug the gaps in our health service. Maybe we should think more about the inequalities between their home countries and ours before we complain about them coming over here to take our jobs. We need them.
::::::::::::
Why does the heart sink when Question Time comes from Northern Ireland?
Is it the sound of millions of tellies across GB being switched to another channel, or is it that sense of déjà vu all over again when you look at the panel and realise you could mouth their words before they’re uttered?
Sir Jeffrey wore his customary long-suffering face as he droned on about not wanting to be treated as a second-class citizen, while the SoS Heaton-Harris stared into the middle distance, wondering how much longer he had to pretend to be interested in his job.
John Finucane performed well, but it was Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood who stole the show with her passion and the famous eye-roll she usually saves for encounters with Jim Allister.
“Our job is to stand for election and do a job… if you don’t want to do the job get out the way”
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 19, 2023
The Alliance Party’s Sorcha Eastwood says the DUP’s boycott of Stormont needs to come to an end#bbcqt https://t.co/ZyXohIi2V5 pic.twitter.com/7g9WmIwQq5
There was no clap-ometer to measure it, but the studio audience in Lisburn seemed to applaud loudest for her message that Stormont should be back at work. Wouldn’t it be a gas if she actually beat him in Lagan Valley.
Maybe it’s time for a shift to the Lords, Sir Jeffrey.
::::::::::
Isn’t it really lucky for the Tories that the ongoing Covid inquiry is attracting very little coverage because of the terrible war in the Middle East?
So while Rishi Sunak is pretending to be a world statesman, visiting Israel to pledge his support, it appears he was dubbed “Dr Death” by government scientists for his ill-judged “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme which encouraged people to visit pubs and restaurants, despite the fact that the pandemic had not gone away.
One advisor told the inquiry that while the hospitality sector needed support, the government could have just given it money. Quite.
