Debate contribution: Minority Ethnic Health Workers: Support after Racism
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 29 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Minority Ethnic Health Workers: Support after Racism
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5644940
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The primary support comes from the trusts because they tend to be the employer.
I was in Ballyclare, in the Member's constituency, during the week of the race riots, and I met an international colleague who runs an advice centre for ethnic health workers. I also went down the street and met a body that delivers healthcare in the community. Its workforce is pretty much 100% comprised of international workers, and it had had all its windows put in. That is just racism. I repeat: if our international colleagues decide that it is not worth the candle any more and up sticks and leave, our health service will collapse.
The trusts have a very practical attitude to that, looking at how you get to and from work. If you are no longer happy or content to take public transport and feel that doing so presents a risk, the trusts work hard to find alternative transportation for you. You may find an international colleague saying, "I do not want to work a particular shift because I do not feel safe getting to and from hospital". There is a degree of flexibility being applied by the management in the hospitals and the trusts, looking at practical measures to try to support our international colleagues.
212 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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