As far-right riots broke out across parts of the UK this week, the chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, warned in an email to NHS leaders that “for many NHS workers, seeing this flare-up of racism will leave them feeling afraid and unwelcome”.
The Guardian spoke to Samir, 32, an NHS hospital doctor in south-west England, who shared his views.
I came to the UK from Egypt four years ago and have worked in the NHS since then. I’ve never felt this unsafe. The online hateful comments are frightening. Health staff from abroad are worried. And there have been anti-immigration demos a few miles away in Weymouth. I’m in group chats with other international doctors in the NHS, and you can tell we’re all scared, especially people who are newer to the UK. People are discussing things like: should we be taking a cab to work for our safety?
Since the far-right riots kicked off, I’ve been watching the footage on YouTube. My girlfriend tells me not to, but I’ve even been watching far-right videos, to see what kind of thing they’re saying. It’s scary. They’re saying idiotic things – that the UK is importing the third world, then it’s causing all this crime, which is factually just not true – but the truth doesn’t seem to matter to them.
When the horrendous crime against those three young girls happened, I saw people circulating false rumours that it was a Muslim, that he was on an MI5 list, all this misinformation. But then when the facts came out it didn’t even matter, they just changed their message. The violence has nothing to do with that awful crime. The worst thing is that, when you look at the YouTube comments, there are scores of people agreeing with these sentiments. One comment stuck with me that said: “When you walk down a street and hear foreign accents, that’s when you know you’ve lost your country.” It’s frightening.
When I watched footage of rioters attacking hotels housing asylum seekers, trying to set them on fire, I just thought: “Am I going to encounter any of these people on the street?” I definitely look foreign, so it’s a possibility. It feels so unsafe. Politicians have been stoking this up, and the Tories played on it when they were in government. Now they’re trying to condemn the violence. They’re just avoiding their responsibility for causing this.
As the riots kept going in recent days, I saw they spread close to me in Weymouth. And it was nice to see people on local group chats posting anti-racism messages of solidarity. But then people would reply with Islamophobic comments. It left me thinking: “They’re probably people who live around here, people I’d see on the street.” I’m an atheist. But if someone confronts me they’re not going to bother asking me that. Are they thinking I should leave? That’s probably a minority, I know, but it’s a really scary time. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I’m losing focus at work, struggling to get it off my mind.
I have a settled life here. I have a girlfriend, and a career in the NHS I love, and I’m on pre-settled immigration status. I don’t know what the future holds. But with all this hatred, I’m having doubts about staying in the UK. If these riots continue then that’ll be an even stronger consideration.
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Foreign doctors, nurses and staff do so much good for the NHS. We’re helping people and benefiting this country. If there were no foreign doctors, the health service would collapse. We contribute so much to the NHS, helping people who are sick, caring for everyone. Immigrants do so much good for the UK. But we never get the appreciation we deserve.