'Thank you for the chance' (From Witney Gazette)

'Thank you for the chance'

8:00am Monday 10th April 2006 in Witney

SOME believe asylum seekers come to Britain to sponge from the British benefit system. Yet Government research shows the foreign-born population contributes around ten per cent more to Government revenues than they receive in benefits equivalent to £2.6 billion a year.

DEBBIE WAITE talked to an Afghan doctor, who has spent four years fighting for the 'honour' of working for the NHS in West Oxfordshire . . .

IT took years of study and determination for Hameed Latifi to qualify as a doctor, but in December 2000, he was forced to leave it all behind.

Persecuted by the Taliban for offering treatment to females, he fled Afghanistan in fear for his life.

Arriving in Britain, he presented himself to immigration, and from the start made it clear he wanted only two things safety and the chance to work again as a doctor.

Four years on, after learning the language, passing exams and working in voluntary positions far below his capabilities, he has finally made it back to the level he was at all those years ago, and is working in the NHS. And he could not be happier.

"Despite what some people think, everything takes a very long time to happen when you are seeking asylum."

Hameed Latifi

"I am a senior house officer at the Moorview Psychiatric Unit, in Witney," Dr Latifi announced proudly.

"It has taken a long time for me to get back to where I was. It is a very rewarding job this was my dream."

Even though he was a qualified doctor in Afganhistan, Dr Latifi, 34, has battled years of red tape to be registered in the UK, coupled with the loneliness of being alone in a foreign country, and the hardship of being prohibited from working to support himself.

"Despite what some people think, everything takes a very long time to happen when you are seeking asylum," he said "It took three months just for my family to get a copy of my doctor's registration, and send it to me.

"Only then would the Home Office begin to consider my application for indefinite leave to remain in this country.

"Thankfully, my first call was at Asylum Welcome, in Oxford," he added.

Within days of his arrival in Oxford, Dr Latifi attended an open day at Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, and Asylum Welcome helped him send a letter to the General Medical Council, which sent him back a pack of the requirements he would need to practise as a doctor in the UK.

He said: "The first stop was to pass a very tough English exam.

"I just wanted to be working so much. But I had to pass this test before I could go any further."

Meanwhile, he had also secured a clinical attachment at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

In May 2004, three and half years after he fled Afghanistan, Dr Latifi secured another voluntary placement, this time as a doctor's assistant with Oxford Mental Health Trust.

"This was half-way between being a doctor and nurse, and involved things like doing ECGs, taking blood and writing notes," he said.

"Eighteen months after this, after being granted indefinite leave to remain, I got a job with the Trust I was overjoyed."

Now a popular member of staff at Moorview Psychiatric Unit, Dr Latifi said: "Mental health was a new challenge for me I was in general practice in Afghanistan but I enjoy it a lot.

"I have been welcomed by everyone at the trust, and I feel that they really want me to get on and do well."

He added: "The NHS is very different to the system in Afghanistan.

"Whilst the Taliban were in power, it was illegal to treat a woman without a male member of her family there even if they did not want that person there.

"There, it is also all about the doctors saying what they think is best for the patient, and doing it.

"Here, doctors explain so much to their patients, and give recommendations the patients are the important ones.

"To me this is so much better because being a doctor is about helping people.

"The workload and hours are also heavier and longer here, but the facilities are much better and I am particularly impressed with the keeping of records here in Afghanistan there was no real record keeping at all, between anyone."

Having been joined by his wife, Fareeda, 31, the couple have set up home in east Oxford, and have a three-year-old son, Mateen, and a one-year-old daughter, Mursal.

Dr Latifi said: "I am so grateful for the chance to be a doctor again.

"It is an honour to work for the NHS.

"And to give something back, I have also helped establish the Oxford and Thames Valley Professionals Project, which gives encouragement, help, and support to other refugee doctors in the area.

"We have a lot to offer this country, if only we are given the chance."