Letter: Immigration to the UK

Strongly held views range from ‘all migrants coming here purely for economic reasons’ (ie their own economic well-being and not the UK’s) and ‘all of them are fleeing genuine persecution, in search of a new safer life’. As with most things, the truth will be somewhere in between.

In his recent letter, John Scholey went further and quoted an official Home Office response confirming that there is no information as to how many migrants fall into which category. As he says, in simple terms, ‘no one knows’.

What Mr Scholey then goes on to assert is that ‘enormous numbers of doctors, dentists and other health professionals’ are apparently stuck in the backlog of asylum claims.

Hang on a minute – I thought no one knew who was an economic migrant or not, even the Home Office.

Apparently, however, according to your correspondent at least, there is some information out there that the Home Office needs to know about.

If that’s the case, let’s get these saviours of the NHS to the front of the asylum queue. Or, perhaps, is the source of this revelation, not quite as reliable as you might think, or dare I say, even made up?

I have no more access to any immigration data than anyone else but if I was a highly educated, highly trained doctor, dentist or other health professional and I wanted to seek fame and fortune by using my skills in another country, I think the very last thing I would do is to pay some shady guy a substantial sum of money, in cash, for the privilege of jumping on a grossly overcrowded dinghy to cross the English Channel.

Maybe that’s just me – perhaps a cheaper option would be to cling on to a lorry chassis for a few hours!

Regular readers of my occasional letters will know that I am a stickler for facts, or at the very least, a reliable and credible source of information.

Coming out with preposterous, unsubstantiated statements contributes nothing to any argument or debate.

There are perfectly legitimate and legal routes (no pun intended!) for health professionals to come and work in the UK, subject to both linguistic and medical hurdles being successfully negotiated.

I find it strange therefore that this ‘enormous number’ of intelligent, educated medics seemingly already here and stuck in the asylum backlog, chose to come here via an inflatable dinghy or in the back of a lorry. Just saying…

For the record, I don’t have the slightest problem with anyone, of any creed or nationality legally coming to the UK who is willing to bring their skills and contribute to and integrate within society.

I am proud to live in a country with a history of welcoming genuine asylum seekers who are fleeing from torment in their homeland. Such migrants have my heartfelt sympathy and I welcome them.

I will confess though that my sympathy does wane a bit when I learn that the journeys here were so tortuous and took many weeks or months and passed through several perfectly safe other countries.

I hope the Home Office administrators feel the same way and ask the relevant questions when the time comes, but I’m not holding my breath.

Alan Smith

Beauchief, S8