Help the victims of

Typhoon Sendong!

Flash floods caused by the Tropical Storm Sendong (International name Washi) have ravaged the provinces in Northern Mindanao and Visayas in the Philippines on Sunday, 18 December 2011. Since then, the death toll has reached to more than a thousand with hundreds more reported missing. Typhoon Sendong is now considered to be the deadliest storm in 2011. Relief and rescue operations are still ongoing.

Kanlungan, the Alliance of Filipino organisations in the UK, together with Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines, appeals to its partners, friends and the rest of the international community to assist our kababayans in this urgent time of crisis. Kanlungan ang CHRP have partnered with EILER in the Philippines so that all proceeds of our donation drive will go to the relief and rescue operations by the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Northern Mindanao Sub-Region.

You can donate through Paypal, by clicking and type in under purpose “Typhoon Sendong.”

 12th of October 2011, Wednesday

Committee Room 16, House of Commons,

Houses of Parliament,

London SW1A 0AA

Kanlungan invites you to the launch of five  [5] briefings based on its research into the effect of immigration changes on Senior Care Workers in the UK. This is to be held immediately after the meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Care sector in the UK. Through a panel discussion, the launch will address the role migrant senior care workers play in the UK, and the impact immigration changes have had on their lives and will have on the UK care industry.

 Click here for more information

Mary Bowers, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7081849.ece

Beneath the sash window of a care home in Wimbledon, lit by a shaft of spring sunlight, Lady Cicely Mayhew sits in the leather chair she occupies most days. Now 86, she reminisces about her adventures as the first female British diplomat, and her childhood growing up in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. It’s a trip down memory lane made all the more enjoyable by the attentive acknowledgement of Johannesburg-born nurse Irene Mahasela.

“I don’t think one wants to be in a care home anyway,” says Lady Mayhew. “But they do a pretty good job.”

Queen’s Court Care Home is one of thousands of residential care facilities that rely on migrant workers. Out of 41 workers, 38 were born outside the EU — in the Philippines, India, Nepal and South Africa. But manager Shaaron Caratella says that under new rules she will not be able to renew their visas when they expire this year.

More than a million extra workers will be needed to support the UK’s ageing population by 2025. In 2007 one in three care workers was recruited from outside the UK, and an estimated 60 per cent of London care workers are non-EU migrants.

Not all managers are as scrupulous as Ms Caratella. Experts have warned that recent immigration clampdowns are threatening the future of the care industry, and driving its non-EU workers into a “trafficking scenario”.

With a lack of government funding for the sector, pressure is being put on the workers willing to be cheap. According to the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford, as many as one in five migrant care workers is paid less than the minimum wage.

“There’s no pressure on the Government to put any more money into social care,” Bridget Anderson, senior researcher at COMPAS, said. “In fact, it’s going to become more squeezed, so it’s going to end up with migrants in it, either through legal or illegal processes.”

Recent changes to the points-based system do not permit non-senior care workers to enter the country from outside the EU. In order to renew visas for senior migrant care workers they must now be paid more than £7.02 an hour, which most care homes cannot afford. Dr Sondra Cuban, lecturer in Education Studies at the University of Lancaster, says that strict rules drive migrants into illegality, where they are constantly at the mercy of their managers.

“The points-based system traps them in ‘modern slavery’ work,” she said. “It almost looks like some kind of trafficking scenario.”

The union Unison says that many workers sleep several to a room and are forced to work overtime with the threat of the removal of their visas. Others are in debt-bondage, sending most of their earnings to the unscrupulous agencies that charge them up to £5,000 before they have even left home — for visas, “paperwork” and accommodation that never materialises. Even at the minimum of £5.80 an hour before tax and living, it becomes a long-term project to pay back the debt. Most cannot return home until they have done so.

Greg Thomson, development manager for migrant and vulnerable workers at Unison, says that workers come to him for advice, but fear action.

“People inevitably say, ‘Don’t do anything because we don’t want to lose our job’,” he said.

“The process of changing the rules seems to us to be a fairly minor thing because we have the right to regulate our own borders. But it impacts very harshly on the people who come here are are looking after the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Care agencies unwilling to go underground say that they face a serious manpower crisis. Lesley Flory, director of recruitment for Barchester Health Care, who run Queen’s Court, says that the future looks bleak without the migrants who make up 40 per cent of her work force nationally.

“Personal care needs people,” she said. “You don’t deliver it on skeleton staff.”

She says that recruiting in the UK and within the EU will not solve the problem. “Initially the Government pushed us heavily towards recruiting in the EU but the economic reality doesn’t make it attractive for them to come to England any more.”

Mr Thomson says that despite the fact that UK unemployment stands at 3 million, the Jobcentre alone will never be an adequate source of work.

“The trouble is, it’s not straightforward. If someone loses their job in the building industry that doesn’t make them a perfect choice to become a care worker.”

“If you are a British person in a local Jobcentre and you have this job with antisocial hours, minimum wage and low-status, and you’re looking for a long-term engagement in the labour market, why would you do that?” Ms Anderson asked. “Unless they do something about pay and conditions and the status of the job, and unless they treat it with some respect, they’re not going to get British people into it.”

At Queen’s Court, Marian Heal, 82, appreciates the presence of the foreign staff who share the building she has called home for 3½ years.

“I hear about them and their homes. I’ve got a vast atlas in my room and I look up where they are going and it provides a lot of interest and stimulation,” she says. “They’re much needed, because British people aren’t prepared to do the job and to work as hard, which care workers from abroad do.”

Mrs Mahasela is willing to concede that it’s not always easy. She had to leave behind her three young children and her husband — who works in a soft drinks warehouse — when she left South Africa five years ago. She returns to visit every six months.

“First and foremost I learn patience in whatever sphere,” she says, taking a deep breath.

Next door in her armchair, Lady Mayhew is similarly realistic. “Generally speaking, staff could do with a little polishing,” she says, her accent clipped. “But they put themselves in the place of patients and they’re very good at it,” She smiles.

“They probably think we’re trouble, too.”

Case Study

It happened on a night shift. But before Evelyn Bolano reported bruises on the body of an elderly patient at the Canterbury care home in which she worked, she wavered for a moment. She knew that her working visa — and the job that supported her teenaged children in the Philippines — was in the hands of her manager.

Little did she know that the blame would be pinned on her and three other Filipino co-workers.

“Because you are on a work permit these things can happen,” she said. “You are quite afraid.”

Mrs Bolano was being paid the minimum wage, which at the time was £5.52 an hour. It was a pound an hour less than her British colleagues at the same level. She says that other migrant care workers had been overworked, underpaid and threatened with legal work permits being overturned or illegal status being reported in the event of disobedience.

Mrs Bolano’s status is legal, but her situation is still precarious. She came to the UK on a work permit five years ago. Having worked as a qualified nurse in the Philippines for 23 years, including a position at Unicef, she moved to Britain as a care worker. Despite taking a job for which she was overqualified, she would be able to send more money home to her husband and two teenage children.

She paid £5,000 to a “travel agent”, who promised her transport, papers and accommodation. It’s a debt that she and her family have still to pay back.

“You have to pay back the debt,” she said, “and living here is very expensive.” In addition, the promised accommodation never materialised, and she slept on floor space provided by a generous colleague. She was too ashamed to admit this to her family.

Though she saw fellow workers abuse their positions with long breaks, her fellow migrant workers were constantly afraid of their manager who threatened to pull their placements — and with it their visas.

“When you are a migrant worker you abide by policy because you are afraid to break it. There is always a panic and no stability. When we were suspended I thought, ‘Oh my God’. I prayed a lot.”

Following an investigation by police and social services, Mrs Bolano and her colleagues were cleared, and the home was shut for six months while new management was sought.

“I love the clients, and they love to be cared for,” she says. “They can be angry sometimes, but that’s how people are. I have parents in their eighties, and I do understand them. Old people cannot speak for themselves. You have to speak for them — you’re fighting.”

Photo credit: Rose Eclarinal, ABS-CBN

16 March 2010

Rose Eclarinal, ABS-CBN,http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/03/16/10/pinoy-senior-carers-uk-file-judicial-review

LONDON – It is time to extend compassion and care to Filipinos who came to the UK to care for Britain’s elderly. This is just one of the goals of Kanlungan, a non-profit, charitable institution, in taking cudgels for embattled senior carers who were denied Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK.

Thirty-three year old Jenny Labaria was denied the application of ILR because of the 5-month gap in her work permit. She came to the UK as a care worker in 2004.

“(I’m) very stressed actually. Wala kang peace of mind. Financially nadi-drain na. Kasi nagbabayad ka ng fee for the solicitor. Yes, very unjust towards us,” said  Labaria.

Senior carers Evelyn Bolano and Mary Sorilla are also intending to apply for their Indefinite Leave to Remain but are worried that just like the fate of many Filipino senior carers in the UK, their application will also be denied.

“May problem kasi sa work permit ko at visa. May gap sila na 20 days. Ang problem kasi when I apply in September, I might be refused or denied the approval of my residency because of the 20-day gap. So ayaw ko ng ma-experience ng ganung problem again,” said Bolano.

‘Yung visa ko, nag- end nung Oct 12, 2009 at ang bagong visa ko na process at na-approve noong January 19 kaya may gap akong almost 4 months,” said Sorilla.

Sorilla and Bolano have already sought the assistance of Kanlungan. They are supporting the cause of Pinoy senior carers in the UK who are petitioning for a judicial review of their case. The judicial review will challenge in the UK court the way decisions concerning the senior case workers have been made.

UK Immigration toughens up

In the last 10 years, the UK Home Office has issued more than 20,000 work permits to those who want to work as senior care worker in the UK. It has paved the way for migrant workers to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain, after working here for 5 years.

In 2004, the UK, in accordance with EU rules, restricted the employment policy of citizens from non-EU countries. The changes were seen in the refusal of UK Home Office to grant 5-year work permits to senior carers, who can apply for permanent residency in the UK. When the UK Home Office refused the renewal of Pinoy carers’ visas, many senior carers were left with no option but to go back to the Philippines. There were also cases of deportation.

Those who remained in the UK continued to challenge the new regulations. With intense pressure from trade and campaign groups and ardent support from Members of Parliament (MPs), the Home Office softened and allowed extension of work permits. It also offered a lifeline to senior carers.

In 2007, the Home Office issued new requirements for the renewal of work permits for senior carers, which include, among others, £7.02 per hour minimum pay.  Those whose employers were not willing to take the new going rate had to find new employers which proved difficult.

Gap in work permit

In a desperate attempt to meet the requirements of the Home Office, many senior carers shift from one employer to another. During the transition, it leaves a gap in their work permit visas. It means losing the chance to qualify for a permanent residency which requires 5 years of successive, no-gap work permit visa.

This is problem faced by Labaria, Bolano and Sorilla. While Bolano and Sorilla are about to apply for their ILR and are hoping they will be given consideration, Labaria is only pinning her hopes on the result of the petition for a judicial review.

Labaria already spent almost 2,000 pounds for her application. Some Filipinos have already spent up to 8,000 pounds for their application for ILR.

Kanlungan said the case of senior carers is a classic tale of abuse and injustice against migrant workers.

“Istorya ito ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao ng manggagawa. Una, naabuso sila dahil sa pagbabago ng batas. Ang proteksyon at karapatan ng migrante pinaglalaban ng mga organisasyon. Hindi yan basta binibigay sa kanila. So yun ang case ng senior carer ngayon,” said Jam Fagta, case worker for Kanlungan.

Kanlungan is hoping to get more senior carers to join them in the plight.

“Ang mga Pinoy, hindi nagrereklamo, hard workers yan kaya ano na lang ang panahon nila sa sarili nila. Ang mga issue nila, di pa nga nila naiintindihan. Kaya ang panawagan ng Kanlungan sa kanila, mag-allot ng panahon para intindihin at suriin ang kanilang issue at tutulong ang organisayon,” said Facta.

UK has amended its immigration rules, which include, among others, limiting working visas to foreign workers and implementation of stricter guidelines for the application of permanent residency. But to Filipino senior carers, the new regulations are discriminatory against them and others who are making an indispensible contribution to UK society.

Calling all care workers with gaps in your visa!

When the government changed the work permit requirements for senior care workers in 2007-2008, many care workers lost their right to extend their visa. A campaign was launched by Kanlungan and other organisations against these changes and the Home Office responded by offering concessions to those who needed to extend their work visas.

However, some of you ended up having a “gap” in your visa. The gap is the period between the date when your first visa expired and your new visa (gained as a result of the concession) began. Recently, some of those who gained visa extensions through the concession have applied for indefinite leave to remain since they have worked in the UK for five years. However, we have heard that some of these have been refused because of the “gap” in their visa.

Kanlungan wants to support migrant workers who have lived in the UK for more than five years, but have not obtained indefinite leave to remain because of this visa gap. Kanlungan is ready to launch a legal challenge against this decision on your behalf. This legal challenge will argue that the decision to refuse your application for settlement on the basis of a gap in your visa is unfair because the gap was the result of changes in the regulations and not because you breach any immigration law.

The fact that the government offered a concession for carers who needed to extend their working visa is an admission that they made a mistake in the rule changes they made. It is therefore your right to be able to demand indefinite leave to remain on the basis that you have stayed in the country for five years.

If you want to demand your right to indefinite leave to remain on the basis of having stayed in the UK for five years, please contact us immediately. We need a certain number of these cases to be able to put the legal challenge on your behalf.

You need to be aware that waiting until you have more than five years residence will not compensate for the gap period, and delaying your application could mean you lose out on the opportunity to get ILR. The Borders, Immigration, and Citizenship Act 2009, which has now received Royal Assent, has removed the Indefinite Leave To Remain provision and replaced this with probationary citizenship which could mean up to another three years (on top of the previous five years requirement) to satisfy even more difficult requirements to gain citizenship.

The new law also states that if you have “gaps” in your visa or have not satisfied the citizenship requirements, you might be required to start another five years of temporary residency before they accept your application for probationary citizenship. The Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Act 2009 will be implemented in stages. There will be a limited transitional measures that will be put in place in relation to applications for ILR.

To obtain permanent settlement, you must ACT now! Fight for your right to indefinite leave to remain! Contact KANLUNGAN immediately!!! ]]> http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/2009/call-senior-care-workers/feed/ 4 http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/2009/overseas-filipino-workers-in-uk-gear-up-for-protest-on-arroyo-visit/ http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/2009/overseas-filipino-workers-in-uk-gear-up-for-protest-on-arroyo-visit/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:22:35 +0000 admin http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/?p=110 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

17 September 2009

Overseas Filipino Workers in UK gear up for protest on Arroyo visit:
- Protect the rights of senior care workers in the UK
- End Arroyo’s labour-export policy

Migrante UK will stage a picket protest on Friday, 18 September 2009 in front of the Riverbank Plaza Hotel at 3:15pm, where Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to give a keynote speech about Philippines’ supposed economic resilience and growth amidst the global crisis during the Economist-led 2009 Emerging Market Conference.

“The supposed stability of the Philippine economy is paid for by the blood and sweat of Filipino migrants through taxations and remittances. How dare Arroyo brag about this when she did nothing to address the problems faced by Filipino migrants in the UK?” lamented Rafael Maramag, coordinator for Migrante UK.

Migrante UK, together with the Kanlungan alliance of Filipino organizations in the UK, are actively campaigning for the right to UK settlement of Filipino senior carers who have fallen victim due to the changes in immigration rules. Kanlungan is set to file a judicial review against the UK Border Agency to challenge the latter’s rejection of settlement applications of affected senior carers.

“We challenge Arroyo to directly lobby the UK government and directly address this issue during her visit. Senior care workers have a right to settle in the UK,” said Jamima Fagta, Migrante UK Secretary-General and project worker for Kanlungan alliance. “It is shameful that Arroyo plans to meet investors and other companies and continue to peddle Overseas Filipino Workers as cheap commodity, while a lot of us Overseas Filipino Workers who have been affected by unreasonable changes in local immigration laws have now become undocumented migrants. Arroyo should put as a priority and push for the proper recognition and documentation of migrant workers in the UK.” added Fagta.

The UK Border Agency has avowed a big shake-up in managing migration, implementing speedy removals of undocumented migrants and failed asylum seekers while instituting return bans for up to ten years for offenders.

“Joblessness and extreme poverty in the Philippines are forcing hundreds of Filipinos everyday to seek jobs abroad, including in the UK, even if it meant the risk of being exploited and becoming undocumented. But Arroyo doesn’t seem to care as long as remittances are being sent back home,” said Maramag. “What Arroyo should do is take action in addressing both the welfare of the more than 200,000 OFW’s in the UK while creating real jobs back home rather than churning out lies of economic resilience in the Philippines,” he added.

Mr. Steve Symonds of ILPA gave a concise yet clear sharing on naturalisation provisions in the new act covering subjects on probationary citizenship; active citizenship, which could vary the length of the probationary period; and other new or amended requirements before a naturalisation application: absences in the UK, continuous employment, family association and qualifying leave.

Moreover, Symonds also stressed prospects to further influence how or whether to implement the Act, which is envisaged to be commenced by the UK Government in July 2011 with impending UK General Elections set next year playing a major factor. Meanwhile, UKBA released two online public consultations in relation to aspects of the naturalisation process, which we are all encouraged to respond:

1.Earning the right to stay: A new points test for citizenship http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/consultations/221878/earning-the-right-to-stay/
Responses due 26 October 2009

2.Charging for immigration and visa applications http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/consultations/221878/charging09/
Responses due 1 December 2009

During the open forum, students also posited queries on Tier 4 of the Points Based System and sponsorship licence. Over all, Kanlungan’s forum identified human rights issues of old and new migrants under the current trend of immigration policies.
 
The forum was attended by representatives from Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN), Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), Cordillera Student Association (CSA), Igorot UK, UNISON and member organisations of Kanlungan Alliance.
 
Full appended text of Steve Symonds’ lecture here.

Kanlungan’s Judicial Review for Senior Carers
Mr. Raman Purewal of Aston Brooke Solicitors, a law firm which Kanlungan has been working closely with on this endeavour, set out the background of the proposed group Judicial Review for Senior Care Workers (SCW’s).

He highlighted the ‘gaps’ incurred by SCW’s in their visas and work permits in applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain which are being used as basis of refusal by the UKBA. He stressed that these ‘gaps’ are a direct result of the changes made by policy changes of the UKBA and therefore not the fault of the SCW’s themselves.

Furthermore, Purewal put forward guidelines in determining gaps in SCW’s visa or working permit. Some SCW’s who were present had the chance to enquire firsthand about their respective cases.

If you are a Senior Care worker under work permit, please contact Kanlungan.

For full text of Kanlungan’s proposed Judicial Review, click here.

5 September 2009

Some 3,500 Filipino care workers in the United Kingdom failed to get their work permits renewed due to a series of immigration and work permit policy amendments implemented by the UK Border Agency.

Kanlungan, an alliance of Filipino migrant organizations in UK, said that the changes imposed by the UK Border Agency, which is in-charge of migration issues, led to rejection of the workers’ application for permanent residency.

Extended residency requirement

The UK used to allow its immigrant workers to apply for permanent residency only after four years of work in the country.

In 2006, however, this requirement was extended to five years. Because of this, thousands of senior care workers were forced to re-apply for extension of their work permit and visa for at least another year.

This was compounded by the fact that, in 2007, the UK Border Agency issued new requirements for work permits and visas renewal specifically for care workers, which required them to have skills and qualifications at National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 3. This is roughly equivalent to a university degree.

The minimum salary for work permit applicants was also raised to £7.02 per hour, from £5.35 per hour before the changes in immigration rules.

With the national minimum wage in UK pegged at £5.73 in October 2008, the new requirement essentially makes non-European care workers expensive to employ as they are the ones affected by the immigration changes.

Probationary citizenship

Over 3,500 migrant care workers were affected by this new requirement. Most of them even had a hard time looking for new employers. The caregivers had the leave their previous employers as they had to look for employers who can give them enough salary to meet the new requirements.

Adding up to this is the introduction of the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Act 2009, in which a “probationary citizenship” that could run for up to eight years is required before one can apply for full citizenship. According to Kanlungan, this “would make it even harder for everyone to apply for permanent settlement.”

Kanlungan chairman Benny Clutario said that this translates into an increase in number of undocumented migrants in UK. “Sadly, they become undocumented not by choice but because of misguided policies and mismanaged immigration,” he said.

Kanlungan is planning to seek a judicial review of the UK Border Agency policies at the British High Court. A judicial review is a court proceeding in the UK judicial system in which a judge reviews the decision or action made by a public body.

The group is planning to do this by filing a class suit on behalf of all senior care workers affected by the immigration changes.

Caregiver favorite

Clutario has called on all affected senior care workers to show up and provide evidence. “The more senior carers involved in this legal action, the better the chance for success,” he said.

In recent years, the United Kingdom has increasingly become a favorite destination of Filipinos seeking jobs abroad in the care service sector. From 2001 to 2007, UK ranked fourth in the world in terms of the most number of Filipino caregivers working in the country.

This phenomenon has inspired ABS-CBN’s Star Cinema to produce the movie, “Caregiver,” which was released in early 2008 and was top-billed by movie star Sharon Cuneta.

Workers in the health and care service account for more than half of Filipinos deployed in UK.

Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency shows that as of 2006, a total of 1,214 out of the 1,880 workers deployed in the country were listed under the ‘caregivers and caretakers’ category.

Other countries whose nationals also become carers in the UK are India, China and some countries in Africa. But, overwhelmingly most of these workers are Filipino. “Perhaps 90 percent,” Clutario said. (Newsbreak)

4 September 2009

A housing association is planning a legal fight against the government over an immigration rule change which has hit thousands of foreign care workers.

London-based Bahay Kubo Housing Association, which has around 48 homes and houses Filipinos, is part of Kanlungan, a consortium of Filipino community groups which is looking to bring the case.

The organisations are fighting a change in immigration law which makes it more difficult for foreign senior care workers to settle permanently in the UK. They are now fundraising to pay for the judicial review.

In 2006 the government said care workers must have been continually employed in the UK for five rather than four years in order to obtain leave to remain in the UK. The following year, it said they must earn a minimum salary of £7.02 per hour to qualify.

Problems arose when some care workers had their applications for leave to remain rejected because they had gaps in their employment when they had looked for jobs with higher pay to meet the new rules.

They were asked to work for extra time to fill in the gaps but Juvy Ganaden, treasurer of Kanlungan, said some applications were rejected even if the extra work was done. She said a positive ruling would benefit employers who would not have to apply for visas for staff given leave to remain.

Kanlungan chair Benny Clutario said: ‘The government made a mess of immigration rules for care workers but now they are using it to deny them permanent settlement. The care industry relies heavily on migrant labour.’ He added that up to 3,500 care workers could be affected by the problem.

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said the transitional arrangements – which allowed workers to extend their permission to work when the changes came in – were ‘fair and generous’, and that changes were made to bring the UK into line with the rest of Europe and ensure carers were engaged in skilled work.