They are doctors in Ukraine, but unemployed in Britain.
They are doctors in Ukraine, but unemployed in Britain.
Dr. Samer al-Sheikh looked at the picture of himself that was on his phone with a blank expression. The image of the surgeon seated at the operation table was nearly unrecognisable to him at this point.
“I’ve lost everything,” he declared.
Dr. al-Sheikh fled the Iraq conflict when he was 16 years old and started a new life as a trauma surgeon in Ukraine. He gained respect for his work at the City Clinical Hospital in Kharkiv even as Russian shells began to fall on the city.
Now, though, the pings of job rejection emails rather than his pounding heart monitor serve as a time marker for him. After fleeing Ukraine in March 2022, he is now living as a refugee in the United Kingdom. He is having trouble starting a new life with his family and is unable to find a medical position that is commensurate with his abilities.
“It takes a certain kind of person to be able to handle it when you have to lose twice. But I didn’t want my family to witness what I saw in Iraq,” said Dr. al-Sheikh, 33, who had a brief job unloading trucks at a supermarket in London but is now jobless once again. “I didn’t want my family to see what I saw in Iraq.”
“If nothing works out here, we will have to go back to where we are valued,” he added, pointing to Ukraine as the potential destination.
As a result of the violence, many hospitals in Ukraine are only running with skeleton teams, which is prompting some physicians who fled the country to contemplate coming back and putting their expertise to use again. However, the issue becomes more difficult to answer for individuals who have families since they worry about placing their loved ones in danger if they do so.
Dr. al-Sheikh stated that if he had been by himself, he never would have left Ukraine. “But my wife has asked me to think about our daughter.”
According to refugee activists, a significant number of the physicians who fled Ukraine have completely abandoned their careers in medicine as a result of difficulties with communication and the arduous process of recertification (Dr. al-Sheikh mentioned an 800 page application form that he would need to finish). Instead, highly skilled medical professionals sometimes choose occupations that require little competence in order to make ends meet.
According to Andrew Geddes, who directs the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, it is not unusual for highly skilled migrants to have difficulty finding employment that are appropriate to their talents. “Without the possibility of meaningful employment, you’re almost relegated to the margins,” he added. “You’re almost consigned to the margins.”
He went on to say that there is even a phrase for it, and that term is “brain waste.”
In Dr. al-Sheikh’s flat in West London, the vestiges of his previous life are never very far away. There is an engraved pen that was given to him by a patient whose life he saved, and there are stacks of medical documents that show the hundreds of hours that he spent working as a doctor.
He went to a cabinet, took out a box, and emptied it into the operating room. He then went over each instrument and described what it was used for. But now, he had very little need for them, he continued as he replaced the lid on the box.
He said that he went to the employment centre and informed the staff there that he had three different majors. “They invited me to come to a job fair, so I took all of my diplomas and went,” he said. “They were looking for people just like me.” “But it was like a bad joke.”
“They offered me a job as a cleaner in the hospital,” he added. “They offered me a job in the hospital.”
In the meantime, many Ukrainian medical professionals are having difficulty finding work in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), which has been crippled by chronic personnel shortages that have contributed to patients having to wait longer for treatment.
During the months that followed the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, internet job boards across Europe were flooded with thousands of employment opportunities for refugees from Ukraine, and countries abolished visa restrictions to make it easier for refugees to find work. However, after one year, many Ukrainian professionals have found that the path to integration has been both more challenging and more time consuming than they had anticipated.
Dr. al-Sheikh fills his days by distributing resumes to various people. According to him, he virtually usually starts his mornings with an email of rejection. On a more recent occasion, it was for a position in the reception area of a medical facility. Prior to that, he tried and failed to find a job as a housekeeper at a hotel.
The lengthy application form that he needs to fill out in order to be reaccredited includes thorough documentation of his medical profession. This evidence must include the names of patients and contact information for those patients, both of which are difficult to get in the midst of the conflict.
He stated, “I’m doing my best,” but he added that the circumstance had caused him to seek therapy for depression. “I’m doing my best,” he said.
For the time being, his wife, who is also a cardiologist, is helping the couple and their daughter, Dalia, who is eight years old by baking cakes and selling them. According to him, the weekly government payment of 300 pounds, which is equivalent to around $370, is not enough for them to subsist, but he is thankful to Britain anyway.
A flag commemorating the crowning of King Charles III is flown above the homeowner’s balcony, where it flaps in the wind.
Dr. Roman Cregg, the president of the Ukrainian Medical Association of the United Kingdom, which is a support and advocacy organisation, agreed that it was challenging to resume a career as a physician in Britain.
“The opportunity to work here is not available right away, and a good number of physicians have tried without success,” he stated, adding that “It could take years.”
“It is very boring for them to just sit here,” he added, adding that the physicians’ concern was exacerbated since they “see that their skills are needed back home.”
