A Mayo-based doctor has said that “words cannot describe” the levels of “anxiety, depression and safety concerns” being experienced by migrant healthcare workers in Ireland.
Dr Liqa Ur Rehman, founder of the Irish Society of International Doctors, said a climate of fear driven by racially motivated abuse has forced many healthcare professionals to take measures to protect themselves, reports RTE.
He and other healthcare leaders have warned that this situation is harming Ireland’s reputation internationally and could negatively affect the country’s ability to recruit healthcare workers in the future.
Dr Rehman said that in many towns around Ireland, migrant doctors have set up private WhatsApp groups to support one another and help ensure their safety, reports RTE.
If someone feels unsafe, they share their location within the group and friends and colleagues coordinate a response.
Dr Edward Mathews of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said healthcare workers are especially vulnerable due to their working patterns, often travelling to and from work at “odd hours of the day and night”, reports RTE.
He said people are increasingly anxious about travelling to and from hospitals and community care settings, prompting some to change their routines.
The trade union leader said he has heard from nurses and midwives who now “group together when they’re moving to and from shift”, reports RTE.
Dr Rehman said he has received calls from “many” doctors across Ireland who have been verbally abused, threatened and physically attacked.
The Castlebar-based paediatrician said he himself has been chased and threatened while walking in a park and has had stones thrown at his home, reports RTE.
As a result, he said he and his family have stopped going out, an experience he says is shared by many migrant healthcare workers and is leading some to consider leaving Ireland.
“There’s a huge fear, and safety concerns, in the community,” he said, reports RTE.
“The general consensus in the community at the moment is that everybody is preparing to move somewhere else,” reports RTE.
While he said racism is “not something new”, Dr Rehman believes it has become “newly empowered in the last few years”.
In August, following several violent incidents, India’s embassy in Dublin issued an advisory urging citizens to avoid isolated areas at certain times and to take reasonable precautions for their safety, reports RTE.
Shortly afterwards, the INMO released a statement saying racially motivated abuse of workers should not be tolerated.
Dr Mathews said that since then there has “certainly been a response”, but added that more needs to be done, particularly in terms of a visible presence in communities and workplaces, reports RTE.
He said while legislation exists, there must be “high visibility prosecutions in appropriate cases” so unacceptable behaviour is addressed “definitively and in a public way”, reports RTE.
Dr Rehman said incidents are reported to gardaÃ, but many migrant healthcare workers have “lost trust” in the police.
The Department of Justice said: “The Government is determined to stamp out hate-motivated crime and protect vulnerable communities,” reports RTE.
A spokesperson said An Garda SÃochána “takes hate crime very seriously” and that every report is professionally investigated, with victims supported throughout the justice process.
They added that hate crime legislation has been strengthened through the Criminal Justice Hate Offences Act 2024, and that a new Migration and Integration Strategy for Ireland is being developed and is due to be launched next year, reports RTE.
Ireland’s health service relies heavily on migrant workers, with Government figures showing that 43% of doctors received their primary medical qualification abroad, the largest group coming from Pakistan.
That figure rises to 52% among nurses, with the biggest cohort originally educated in India, reports RTE.
This compares with lower levels in similar countries, such as the UK, where 23% of nurses were educated outside the country.
Dr Mathews said: “There is a clear understanding in the international community that there has been an uptick in the far-right and racist behaviour in Ireland, reports RTE.
“They have other destinations that are better paid, that have higher staffing levels, and that have better weather,” but he warned that Ireland’s healthcare system “cannot survive without them”, reports RTE.
Dr Suzanne Crowe of the Irish Medical Council said Ireland has long been seen as welcoming and friendly, which has traditionally attracted medical professionals, a message she said has been relayed internationally.
However, she said that recently “something has changed”, and in recent weeks she has received reports of doctors being verbally abused in supermarkets with their children, in hospital car parks and outside train stations, reports RTE.
She said medical professionals often move countries throughout their careers and do not see geography as a barrier, but rather “the type of society that they’re moving to as a barrier”.
If the situation continues or worsens, she warned: “We would start to see a fall off of the numbers of staff who want to come to Ireland, reports RTE.
“These attitudes are being whipped up by malign forces, many of whom are not even based in Ireland. That needs to be seen and that we’re kinder, nicer people than that. We’ve got to, as a society, say this is not us as a people, we don’t hold these attitudes,” reports RTE.
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