MCA Youth Regrets Move To Discontinue Specialist Training In UK

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- MCA Youth has expressed deep regret over the recent move by the British government to discontinue specialist training in the United Kingdom (UK) for all non-European Union citizens.
MCA Youth secretary-general Wee Ka Siong said the sudden and new ruling introduced in April 2006 was believed to have placed thousands of specialists in various fields in a "nasty predicament" with specialist doctors from Asia, Africa and even Australia no longer allowed to continue their training in UK hospitals.
"Although the former British High Commissioner (to Malaysia) issued a statement earlier this year in the local newspapers to clarify the situation, we find his explanation highly unsatisfactory," he said in a statement.
Wee said the British government was of the view that they were only obliged to ensure that the doctors completed their two years of foundation training to qualify them as medical officers registered under the General Medical Council (GMC).
"What we are concerned about is that the parents had sent their children to study a course which they were led to believe would also allow them to complete their post-graduate training."
Wee said he had met many parents who said their sons and daughters were not able to get the Permit Free Training Visa and that they must acquire a work permit now due to the ruling.
"Some of them had to pack and leave midway while working in the hospitals to come home to apply for a work visa. Otherwise, they would be classified as illegals," he said, adding these people were virtually being thrown out of the system just because the British government had decided that it did not want to oblige its duty as the head of the Commonwealth.
He said as head of the Commonwealth -- a voluntary association of independent states which were once British territories -- the British government should not have forgotten its obligations to its member countries.
"I appreciate that every country has the sovereign right to determine its own internal policies and certain priorities have to be set for its own people just as Malaysia does. However, these are fee-paying students who have contributed billions to the UK government in terms of education revenue," he said.
Wee said MCA Youth was not objecting to the ruling per se, but merely asking the British government to allow those presently in the system to continue their studies as well as to provide very clear explanation on the ruling to future students.