Last modified on Fri 15 Jan 2021 01.02 EST
Migrant doctors and other healthcare professionals who have contracted Covid-19 while caring for NHS patients sick with the virus say they are devastated that a parliamentary bill that would have given them the right to remain in the UK has been postponed.
The healthcare workers said they were holding out hope that the second reading of the private members’ bill – which had been scheduled for 15 January and is now cancelled – could give them immigration security if passed.
The immigration (health and social care staff) bill 2019-21 calls for migrant healthcare workers to be granted indefinite leave to remain. It is similar to the citizenship being granted in France to frontline migrant workers.