A critic of the UK’s immigration system has said The British Home office directive to a young doctor who has spent the majority of her life in the country asking her to leave “defies basic common sense”.
Mu-Chun Chiang, 27, has lived in the UK for over 13 years but, due to what she describes as “a nonsensical administrative issue”, her application for a new visa was rejected and the Home Office told her to leave the UK or risk up to six months’ imprisonment.
Originally from Taiwan, Dr Chiang lived in Glasgow from 1997 to 2002 with her parents before returning to the UK in 2006 to study – and has lived here since, now working at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool.
Recounting her ordeal, Chiang said, “When I got the letter I was shocked, all these things were going on in my head,” Dr Chiang told the PA news agency.
“I was worried because we were already understaffed on our ward and leaving all my friends would be really heartbreaking.”
Speaking on the issue, Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told PA. “At a time when our NHS is under immense strain and crying out for more doctors, kicking out a young doctor trained to work in the NHS just defies basic common sense,”
“Our immigration system is dysfunctional, complicated and inhumane.
“That someone can be threatened with detention and removal because of a small technical mistake in a visa application highlights the urgent need for the system to be rebuilt from ground up so that people who move here are treated fairly and with humanity.”
