An infection control specialist who has been offered a job as a senior NHS biomedical scientist to help tackle the pandemic is facing deportation by the Home Office, prompting fresh calls for a more “humane” approach to skilled migrants.
The government has refused Charles Oti, 46, from Nigeria the right to remain in the UK even though the job he was offered is among the government’s most sought-after skilled positions.
Hmm. OK, the laddie’s Nigerian. On what grounds should he – or should he not – be here.
However, the Home Office – which recently accepted that Oti suffered experiences akin to torture during a racist attack in Northampton – said he faced being deported because he did not have the correct documentation.
That’s all they tell us. We don’t know whether it’s just failing to have got a form signed for permission to stay. Or that he swam the Channel and has no docs or rights at all.
Funny that really.
Oti’s lawyers believe the Home Office has not factored in the NHS job offer and say the fact he was a victim of a serious racist attack should have influenced its approach to the case.
This sounds like code for saying Oti genuinely does not have the correct docs, not by a long way and it’s not a bureaucratic thing that he doesn’t have the docs, or someone lost them.
What the lawyers seem to be saying is yes he should be deported technically and should be, except that the job offer and the racist attack should count for something, so a humanitarian case has to be made.
Does he have the documentation to prove he’s really a biomedical scientist?
Smells fishy to me. If he is as qualified and necessary as claimed, surely it would be easy to sort out his paperwork? If necessary he could fly back to Nigeria to get it sorted out. We wouldn’t stop him returning if he had a job offer and the right paperwork.
The immigration shyster blathering about “a racist assault akin to torture” (which isn’t relevant at all, just an attempt to drum up sympathy) suggests there’s something dodgy going on.
Hang on, if the “racist” attack happened in this country surely he should be sent home for his own safety?
We’re forced to let foreign criminals stay here if they’re “at risk” of attack in their own countries, so why doesn’t the same standard apply? (Answering my own question, I know…)
One wonders what documentation he produced to establish his status as an infection control specialist and eligibility to work for the nhs (and whether the Home Office has asked the nhs to provide such evidence).
MC beat me to it (by a minute).
If he is here on some virus-freak out caper give him another good hiding and send him back. We have enough virus mugs spewing deceitful bullshit of our own without importing more.
And what is this “racial attack/torture” cockrot? Given that Nigeria is a much more violent society than UK (and a lot of UK violence is done by imports not natives) this bloke would have to be very unlucky indeed to be here a short time and then been not merely attacked but “tortured” during an attack. So we should hear some details of this. Is it an attack by UK natives or was it a fall out among imports? After all I believe Nigeria still has tribes who don’t get along. If he moved in the UK Nigerian “community” he might have well discovered that the ” ” around that word perhaps count for a lot.
“infection control specialist”? Is that HR-speak for “cleaner”?
It instantly occurred to everyone here that if this guy was an undocumented immigrant then how did anyone know they he was qualified? Why did the journalists covering the story not think to ask that question?
Clearly it would be impossible to replace a Nigerian with an English person, to suggest otherwise is a sign that you’re a Nazi.
“infection control specialist”? Is that HR-speak for “cleaner”?
So “senior NHS biomedical scientist” is presumably a foreman cleaner?
How many covid cases arise in hospitals? If any organisation needs serious cleaning staff, it’s the NHS
30%-40% of cases are numbers I’ve seen for hospital infection. Shutting down the NHS might have really been for people’s protection after all
Hmm.. Summing up the things in the article, he’s supposed to be a graduated microbiologist who worked in China, and then moved to the UK.
Could be me, but it should be relatively easy to check enrollment/graduation, and some proof of employment in China. That’s pretty high-level, after all…
What’s the odds on the “racist attack” being a reminder of his import overlords to keep up with gratitude payments?