Letter written to Home Secretary about plight of hundreds of Keralite healthcare workers left jobless in UK

By A Staff Reporter

LONDON June 15: Reports say that there are hundreds of Keralites those who have received the Certificate of Sponsorship to work in UK’s healthcare sector but on arrival they havent been given the job which they were promised. Some of them have been here in the UK for the last six months without any jobs being offered and left with no income to survive.

The Keralite community initially began a Whatsapp group with all those affected where there are around 400 plus members those who are mainly left without job. This website is also part of that group and are continuing to support them. These people were also supported by other community members by obtaining help from various solicitors in UK, providing guidance on how to apply for other jobs etc.

Many were given advise and signposted to begin efforts to find alternative. This Whatsapp group volunteers can vouch of helping several including one of those most recent one being able to obtain a job offer from a NHS Trust.

Click to Watch a Video this website did to answer questions from those stranded

The issue was continuously brewing within the Malayalee community with community volunteers raising it on social media and also liaising with those agents who fleeced these poor migrants and several sent emails to Home Office. Although there were promises from the agents to help none materialised.

The issue began gaining traction only when Guardian Observer highlighted the plight those stranded through an article last Sunday.

The Guardian article revealed severe concerns about Indian nurses from Kerala who have been recruited to work in the UK, and how they are being treated and exploited.

The Guardian reports states, “They are understood to have spent as much as £18,000 each on relocation costs, “training” charges and other fees to take up jobs in homes that provide taxpayer-funded care for disabled and vulnerable children, including those with complex trauma and learning difficulties.Before they left India, the nurses were promised by agents that they would receive financial support from their 11th day in the UK while inductions and background checks were completed. But after they landed earlier this year they were told this was not the case, and they would be paid only after starting shifts, according to evidence seen by the Observer. Administrative delays and the temporary closure of several Cambian children’s homes – leaving fewer vacancies than expected – means some workers have been waiting for up to four months to start work, without any income. They are unable to find other work because their visas are tied to their employer”.

Malayalam newspapers started to pick this up following Guardian’s publication and now a politician from Cambrdige has written to Home Secretary.

Cllr Baiju Thittala Varkey, deputy Mayor of Cambridge and city Councillor from East Chesterton, has now raised the matter with the Home Secretary by writing a letter to them asking them to intervene.

The letter which this website has seen states that, “It is nothing but an organised criminal activity to gain a huge amount of money through by exploitation of these poor Indian nurses. The victims are brought from India to the UK to be exploited. The accounts of the victim are alarmingly worrying; some of them openly mention suicidal thoughts, as has been stated by the Observer. Some of the victims have children with them, then mental trauma and safety are also at risk. A victim sent a voice message to her friends, ‘She has no place to stay and will become homeless along with her child’. I have serious concerns about their safety; a victim has told me, if they return to India, there is every possibility of them being attacked by these organised gangs. They owe a huge debt, which is incurred by paying these criminal gangs. I request the police to investigate this matter as a matter of urgency and to protect around 150-300 people who migrated to this country to work. I plead with you as the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to request an immediate investigation against these organised gangs and save these vulnerable victims who have come to look after our sick and elderly people”.