Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has praised international workers left feeling “frightened and vulnerable” after four nights of racist violence.
With the disorder in Ballymena spreading to areas including Larne, Belfast, Coleraine and Portadown, he said: “The actions of recent days have no doubt left some members of our HSC family feeling frightened and vulnerable.
“It is well accepted within health and social care that without our international colleagues, the health service would collapse.
“The international recruits who arrive to work here across our HSC system provide an immensely valuable contribution to the delivery of health and social care services and enrich our communities with their diversity.”
Having met many overseas health workers in the last year, he said: “They are greatly needed, very much appreciated and highly valued. They are deeply welcome here and their health, safety and wellbeing are of paramount importance.
“People should be entitled to live in peace, free from harm and intimidation, and I stand against this reprehensible, racist and xenophobic behaviour.”
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt meeting with internationally recruited doctors at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry last August.
Health workers feeling concerned are encouraged to reach out to their health trusts for support.
Since 2016, the health service in Northern Ireland has recruited more than 1,700 international nurses through the International Nurse Recruitment project.
A total of 188 overseas doctors have also started employment between April 2023 to March 2024.
As of June this year, there are also nearly 8,000 people registered in social work or social care from outside the UK and Ireland – with 95 social workers and 7,688 social care practitioners.
A resident clearing debris in Portadown (Brian Lawless/PA)
A joint statement from Northern Ireland’s Chief Professional Officers – covering specialties including medical, nursing, social work, pharmacy and dentistry – also called this week’s violence “nothing short of shameful.”
“That people should be targeted and threatened simply because of their ethnicity, skin colour or cultural background is utterly despicable,” they said.
“That they should be intimidated out of their own homes is vile. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and to live in a safe environment free from harm and intimidation.
“We know there will be many of our international colleagues within the committed and dedicated Health & Social Care and independent sector workforce who will be distressed by what has unfolded.”
They added that it was less than a year since race-fuelled riots in Belfast and elsewhere had left health workers in fear.
“But please know this: You are welcome, you are deeply valued, and you have our full support. We are the better for your presence here.
“This behaviour is not representative of Northern Ireland, nor the people who live here.”
Encouraging the public to show their support for friends and colleagues from overseas, they added: “The hugely valuable contribution that our diverse internationally educated and recruited colleagues and friends make to our health and social care service is very well recognised.
“They go out to work each and every day, serving our communities with professionalism, dignity, kindness and compassion.
“We stand with them and condemn, in the strongest possible terms, these blatant acts of racist thuggery.”