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Anorak News | Refugee P

Refugee P

by | 2nd, March 2004

‘OF course, if this influx of talent were making its way to the UK instead of Hollywood, we would call them asylum seekers or refugees and demand that they be sent home.

‘Is there a doctor in the house?’

As the Express leads the campaign to demonise anyone of immigrant stock, the Independent this morning tells of the 44,443 people from outside the EU who swamped our National Health System last year – a 27-fold increase since 1993.

These are, of course, the people who fill ‘every role in the health service from doctors and nurses to pharmacists, radiographers and occupational therapists’.

‘They are,’ says the Indy, ‘of all colours, all backgrounds and from all points of the globe.

‘Some come for love, some for money, some for a better life, but they are all working for one purpose – to keep the NHS going.

‘They go where British professionals are reluctant to go – traffic-choked inner cities and grimy housing estates – and they perform the essential caring tasks that their British counterparts are reluctant to take on.’

Express owner Richard Desmond may be able to afford his own private Caucasian doctor, especially with the £20m the Guardian says he has just made from selling off his stable of porn mags, including Asian Babes and Big Ones.

But perhaps less privileged Express readers may care to mull over the real meaning of ‘NHS tourism’ next time they fall ill.’



Posted: 2nd, March 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink