Not such a warm welcome

I have been horrified by the report featured in the Guardian newspaper of a former case worker’s experience at the Border Agency offices in Cardiff.

What Louise Perrett discovered during her three and a half months of employment last summer makes for uncomfortable reading and questions need to be raised at the highest level.

Her account suggests racism is rampant and asylum applicants are treated inhumanely, at best. In one of the more shocking anecdotes, Ms Perrett said her former colleagues kept a stuffed gorilla dubbed the “grant monkey” which was placed as a badge of shame on the desk of any officer who approved an asylum application. A manager is also reported to have said of the asylum-seeker clients: "If it was up to me I'd take them all outside and shoot them."

Just as worrying was Perrett’s claim she was given the power to make legally binding decisions on whether asylum seekers were granted or refused asylum after five weeks of training. If life-changing decisions are being taken after an induction lasting just over a month, then the legitimacy of so many applications have to be questioned. People in desperate need may have been deported from the UK on a whim because of a lack of understanding and a lack of knowledge, stemming from a lack of adequate training.

As I write, a protest against charter flight deportations is taking place outside the Border Agency offices on Newport Road by No Borders South Wales. It has greater significance in the light of these allegations.

There have been calls for an investigation. I hope that no stone is left unturned if an inquiry is given the go-ahead and that robust action is taken if the allegations are proven. This behaviour has no place in Wales. Racist attitudes in a high-profile Government office charged with making life or death decisions should not be tolerated.

Immigration rules hit NHS

Welsh NHS Trusts are facing problems recruiting doctors because of new immigration rules.

There are up to 25 per cent vacancies in some key specialities with some Trusts having an over-reliance on locum or agency doctors. Nearly 200 vacancies have been identified at just four of the NHS Trusts in Wales.

I wrote to the Minister after some hospital services were temporarily withdrawn last Christmas. The responses I've had back show that the trusts rely heavily on medical staff from outside the EU - in Gwent its 43%. It's ironic that reactionary calls to curb immigration have led to a situation where we could end up losing valuable NHS services.

Over the long term, a strategy is required to ensure that the NHS is not so reliant on expertise from overseas. Many of our doctors come from developing countries – countries which need doctors in many ways more than we do. But in the short-term, the rules should be relaxed to enable more trained doctors from overseas to work in the NHS.

You can read more online here, here and here.