'INHUMANE'
A BAFTA-WINNING filmmaker turned hospital cleaner, who works on a coronavirus ward, has today blasted the £624 NHS surcharge for migrant health workers who "risk their lives on the frontline".
Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad, 32, a Bafta-winning photographer and filmmaker, said that for many health workers, the NHS surcharge was two weeks' worth of pay.
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Workers coming to the UK from outside the European Economic Area have to pay a fee to use the health service which will soon increase from £400 a year to £624.
The essential worker today said he made £8.50 an hour for working as a cleaner in a Covid-19 ward.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said: "It's unfair and it's unjust.
"I would also argue that it's inhumane.
"I'm doing this job temporarily but for most cleaners and porters this is two weeks.
"This is the salary of two weeks to access the very same institution that they are now working for during the toughest, worst public health crisis in modern history.
"When I'm in the hospital, I'm observing what's going on around me and you can see that people are genuinely disturbed by these unfair policies that the government keeps coming with."
He said he himself didn't need to pay the health surcharge but the morale among the family of workers was low during the pandemic.
GMB host Piers Morgan said he was horrified by the NHS surcharge that is increasing from £400 to £624 for one year as of October 2020.
Piers said: "It seems frankly disgusting that everybody like them has to pay £624 for the pleasure and privilege for using the service they work in."
Boris Johnson yesterday revealed 181 NHS workers and 131 social care workers have died from coronavirus.
U-TURN
Meanwhile, a leading Tory MP has supported Labour's call to scrap the fees some overseas health workers are charged to use the NHS.
Chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee William Wragg said "now is the time for a generosity of spirit towards those who have done so much good".
Mr Wragg added that he is "sure" that his Conservative colleagues would be supportive of his stance.
But the Prime Minister’s spokesperson insisted the surcharge was going nowhere.
He said: ”It goes directly back into the NHS to help save lives.
“Income from the surcharge is distributed between the four devolved health administrations in England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland for the purpose of health spending.
“Money that we put into our health service has a direct impact on improving people’s lives and saving people’s lives.”
And cleaner Hassan had previously been thrust into the spotlight after his emotional plea went viral over the government's decision to leave migrants out of a bereavement scheme to allow the families of coronavirus victims to be given indefinite leave to remain.
The government later did a U-turn on the scheme after criticism that care workers, cleaners and porters had been left out of the scheme, which only applied to certain workers such as nurses, biochemists and radiographers.
The extension of the scheme - which was originally announced last month - to include cleaners, porters, social care staff and care home workers will be effective immediately and retrospectively, the Home Office confirmed.
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During his emotional plea previously, Hassan filmed himself in his car.
He said: “I felt betrayed, stabbed in the back. I felt shocked to find out that you’ve decided, your government decided, to exclude myself and my colleagues who work as cleaners and porters and social care workers, who are all on minimum wage, you’ve decided to exclude us from the bereavement scheme."
Syrian born Hassan fled to England in 2015, having previously been imprisoned and tortured under the Assad regime.
He joined a 750,000-strong army of NHS volunteers fighting the covid-19 bug and cleaned wards at his local hospital St Bartholomew's .
Hassan was born in Damascus in 1990, becoming a secondary school English teacher when he was just 19.
He took part in the first anti-government protests in 2011 and was imprisoned twice, where he was tortured and had both wrists and a leg broken.
Hassan arrived in the UK in late 2015 and documented his difficult journey for a BBC film that went on to win a Bafta.
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Syrian NHS cleaner fights back tears as he pleads with Boris Johnson to rethink bereavement scheme