How have refugee doctors been affected by the recent changes to the immigration rules?
In April 2006, new immigration rules were introduced for postgraduate doctors and dentists. Refugee doctors were not affected by the changes because of permission to work in the UK by virtue of their accepted asylum application. In February 2008 further immigration rule changes were implemented introducing a Points Based System under which restrictions were placed on doctors falling into certain immigration categories preventing them from applying for postgraduate training posts unless there was no UK or EEA candidate available. Refugee doctors were not affected by these changes. Some refugee doctors have experienced difficulties during medical recruitment processes because medical staffing departments have misinterpreted Department of Health guidance about the application of the new immigration rules. Indeed, some refugee doctors were removed from the recruitment process because employers didn’t understand their immigration status. Is there a forum for those working with refugee docto
