Nurses without work visas locked out of jobs
Internationally-qualified nurses registered to work in New Zealand are being stranded here without work visas and unable to find jobs.
Two of them, Divina Mathew and Anitha, who gave the surname KP, spoke of their plight at a NZ Nurses’ Organisation rally named, Migrant nurses against exploitation and discrimination, in Palmerston North’s Te Marae o Hine/The Square on Saturday.
The rally was supported by the Kerala Association of Palmerston North representing the community of migrants from southern India.
Anitha made a plea “from the bottom of my heart” for help to get a work visa.
The women said they were searching for jobs, but were rejected because they were in the country on visitor visas.
Many had large debts from payments to recruitment agencies and for training through the Competency Assessment Programme (CAP) to gain registration in New Zealand.
Without an income, they were struggling financially, and could not afford to return home.
Mathew said the process had been hard and slow.
She had come from Dubai to New Zealand in 2023 and had completed the CAP course to get her practising certificate.
She said she had been applying everywhere for jobs, and was rejected as soon as she had to declare her visa status. Employers looking to take on the migrant nurses had to apply for status as accredited employers and guarantee secure employment to be able to support them to gain work visas. Palmerston North Hospital nurse and nurses’ organisation board member Saju Cherian said that was something employers were no longer willing to do.
He said the recruitment agencies were effectively exploiting international nurses, taking their money on the promise of finding jobs that were no longer there. “These recruitment agencies will charge the nurses a fee of around $10,000,” he said.
“In addition, it costs around $10,000 to undertake a CAP course.
“These costs don’t include expenses such as flights to get here and accommodation.
“They are ending up in debt and saying they cannot return to India jobless and unable to repay this debt.”
Cherian said the Government needed to put a stop to allowing unlimited numbers of internationally-qualified nurses into the country to ensure those already here, estimated at 500, were supported into jobs. “These nurses are really quite stressed. “Recruitment should be paused and incentives for agencies to bring them out should be stopped.”
He said while the turnout of about 100 people at the rally and the support from the community was encouraging, many of the nurses were worried about speaking up.
NZ Nurses’ Organisation president Anne Daniels said overseas-trained nurses demonstrated great commitment in giving up jobs to come to New Zealand, and those she had worked with showed exemplary care for their patients.
“Without you, our whole health system would topple,” she said.
Daniels said it was worrying that despite the need for more nurses, vacancies were drying up.
She urged the nurses to put their demands in writing and talk to the organisation and to politicians about sorting their situations out.