Filipino caregivers protest new immigration law in UK

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the United Kingdom met several British lawmakers last week to protest a new immigration law that would disallow thousands of lowly paid migrant caregivers from settling in the UK after five years of work.

At the three-hour meeting at the House of Commons at Westminster in London, OFWs led by the Kanlugan Alliance of Filipino Organizations, relayed to Members of Parliament their concerns about a new policy by the UK Border Agency not to renew visas for anyone who was not being paid the minimum hourly rate of 7.02 pounds (about P486) set for senior care workers.

“The UK will need skilled migrant care workers for the foreseeable future. Skilled migrant care workers are hardworking families. Settlement is one of the main reasons why they come to Britain. It’s unfair to change immigration rules for people already settled who’ve planned for their lives. Salary level should not determine who settles,” Kanlungan said in a statement.

Kanlungan leaders and representatives from other groups such as the Migrant Rights Network and the Unison also met with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration.

The OFWs said the new policy was discriminatory because visas had already been issued to other migrant workers who are paid lower rates and who had worked legally for five years in the UK.

Kanlungan project staff Jamima Fagta, in an email to the Inquirer from London, said two caregivers, Lourdes Dizon Somera and Gundelina Ramirez shared their difficulties in obtaining their Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) document, which would allow them to live in the UK after five years of work.

The two explained to lawmakers how immigration rules affect them and their families, their work and the community as a whole.

Somera, who went to the UK five years ago to work and support her family and her younger siblings back home, said she was “devastated” when her application for ILR was rejected.

Somera also recounted how she had come to love her work of caring for her wards, since she is an orphan. “It is a mixture of joy and hard work being a caregiver…I have personal empathy with them so it is fulfilling when I deliver the care…It is as if I am caring of my own parents.”

If she fails to get her ILR, Somera would have to leave UK, together with her two-year old son, who was born in London.

Fagta said the audience was “moved” by the OFWs’ personal stories, adding, “If we were only given ample time, all of the senior caregivers in that room could have shared the same agony.”

The OFWs, she said, appealed to the MPs to hold a parliament debate on the matter.

“The response was positive but we need to work together to achieve this,” Fagta said.