Hundreds of foreign-trained doctors working in France on Wednesday launched a three-day hunger strike, demanding job security and the right to stay in the country. The protest comes after the government failed to deliver on a promised extension of work permits, leaving many at risk of losing their jobs.
The doctors, who qualified outside the European Union, also plan to demonstrate outside the Health Ministry in Paris on Saturday.
Many work in medical fields facing staff shortages, including geriatrics, emergency medicine, visceral surgery and psychiatry.
They earn significantly less than their French counterparts – sometimes three times less – and are often employed on short-term contracts that renew every six months.
“We find ourselves in an unacceptable precarious situation,” Abdelhalim Bensaïdi, a diabetologist who has worked at Nanterre Hospital for more than six years, told France Inter.
Three-quarters of foreign-trained doctors come from five Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco and Lebanon. Many have been working in France for years, supporting a health system struggling with staff shortages.
France admits more foreign doctors than ever before, but inequalities remain
Unmet promises
More than a year and two governments later, that promise remains unfulfilled.
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