Flying Colours

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NHS in North -East England is seeking the skills of doctors, who arrived in England as refugees. But well-trained doctors from a Country , the practice of love, here, have, spend their days working in factories or deliver pizzas, reports the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby.

Dr. Yemane don't want to this interview. For The First 15 Minutes we don't spend drinking Ethiopian coffee in a small Café not far from Middlesbrough train station, he leaves his friends and colleagues speak, the answers To My questions very politely, but with obvious reserve. He is concerned that someone might think, he moaned, he complained about his lot. You push him about his feelings, and he clears his throat, shifts uncomfortably in his chair and only offers, "things are occasionally a little Tough . "

In truth, it is far More Than "a little hard" for 35-year-old Yemane, a refugee from Eritrea was. After implicitly criticized his Country 's health service to a public meeting in the year 2012, his life is threatened was to flee the military and he, finally, land in Birmingham, where he was granted Political Asylum .

"as much As I thank the United Kingdom as a Safe Haven for me and gives me shelter, it is a feeling of incompleteness," he says quietly. "Because, a refugee does not want to know a burden On Society , and I, I could be More this company a lot. "

Yemane has found work in a factory, as a maintenance assistant and as a volunteer in a refugee-aid organization. He takes the large Tome on The Chair next to him and flicks through the pages. It is a book about pharmacology. He is soon absorbed in its pages. As Yemane is actually a qualified Doctor - he's just not allowed to practice in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Yemane (left) and friends in Middlesbrough cafe Yemane was learning at the time of the second intake of students of the Orotta School of Medicine and dentistry in 2004 in Asmara, Eritrea, with The Help of Cuban science. He studied there for eight years, covering a wide range of disciplines, from neurology to surgery. Studies were externally monitored by professors from Switzerland, the USA and the Sudan. Yemane has an entry for every semester he spent studying there, and he modestly says that he "don't want to overdo it", but he is confident that The Level of studies at the Orotta School of Medicine has been as rigorous and thorough of all the UK Medical School , and that he is "competent", in his studies. In fact, the report card he shows on almost every test at grade A.

But The General Medical Council (GMC), The Body that regulates and non-registered doctors in the UK, this is enough. You need verification of the Eritrean authorities and the Orotta School of Medicine that Yemane is a primary medical qualification exactly what he claims it is. The problem is that Eritrea is an authoritarian state and not to the citizens, who had fled from the Country .

BBCEritrea the North Korea of Africa - it' s not going to be the cooperation with the GMCBini Araia
investing in people and culture", of course you will not respond, of course, you will be releasing information," says Bini Araia, an Eritrean colleagues, working with the Middlesbrough-based charity, investing in people and culture, which helps, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust getting Refugee Doctors back into practice.

"life is hard is a type, the controls and refugees, so that they never succeed in getting outside, when you leave your Country .

"Eritrea is not a friend of The West . It is the North Korea of Africa , it is difficult for standardised military and it is a dictatorship. It is not to operate co-with the GMC. "

It is a bitter irony for Yemane, he moved from Birmingham to Middlesbrough, because he had read, in partnership with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust.

From his reading he knew that the Teesside region has an acute shortage of medical personnel. He was immediately accepted on to the Scheme and, unusually, has the very strict English exam on The First sitting, and with flying colors. The next step was to sit the two necessary medical tests known as Plab 1 and Plab 2, but as Yemane knuckle down to the revision of the GMC's blocked his participation. Yemane is too polite to slate the GMC for his caution. He says only that he hoped that the GMC could try to find a way around the problem.

Find out More lists Emma Jane Kirby's report of the Middlesbrough to

read your previous report on

"I Am very grateful to you for your efforts," he says diplomatically. "But sometimes I think they might be just a bit More want?"

His followers are a little More outspoken.

"It's just so frustrating!", Dr. Margaret Hinman says, a retired Teesside Doctor to lobby for Yemane and to help him have been, with a private study.

"I understand perfectly, that the patient's safety is paramount, but surely we can find a solution to this situation addressed?"

she looks like Yemane that is absorbed in the pharmacology textbook you lent him, absently lacing, a stethoscope, through his fingers.

"we have here a young man who has overcome so many difficulties, a ready-made Doctor Who wants to work and who wants to Teesside to make his Home - and we have so many vacancies here!"

it reminds me of the success of the Scheme - four Refugee Doctors are now full-time work in the NHS, and five More are about to be registered, while a handful of others sitting their tests in medicine.

"And there is no reason not to believe, Dr. Yemane is less qualified than anybody else," she adds.

"We have information from the former Dean of medicine [in the Orotta School of Medicine], we have Yemane curriculum and what is so frustrating to accept that other EU countries such as Austria and Sweden , where the guidelines are I'm sure, are just like us-in the situation that the same paper to practice stuff and leave Eritrean doctors. "

Doctors like Dr. Sahle, a classmate and close friend of Yemane, Eritrea fled, about the same time. Sahle asylum claims in Austria rather than in the UK, however, and once he got settled status, was able to keep his documents to the Austrian authorities, and his start in the German-language tests, and strict medical retraining. He now works full-time as a Doctor in a large hospital in Graz, South East Austria, where he is hoping to specialize in Internal Medicine . We will have to wait a couple of weeks, together Set Up a Skype call, because he was run off his feet.

Dr. Yemane friend, Dr. Sahle, now working in Austria, "It's not fair," he tells me. "Because I remember, Dr. Yemane as a caring Doctor to work in a very professional and hard. If you could just give him a Chance, I'm sure he would show you how competent he is. "

Sahle think about how much he loves his job and how, now he can feel the card out of a career, he really has started his new life in Europe. Twice a week, he calls his friend Yemane news to share. You hear in one of your conversations, it is painful to hear how hungry Yemane is to learn about the cases of his old friend worked, and how careful Sahle the answer to his questions with tactful restraint.

"I don't work, and he," he reminds me. "But I have the same documents he has - Nothing More . "

Bini Araia, says investment in the people and the culture, there are at least four additional qualified Eritrean doctors in the UK, the work desperate around here. Instead, he says, they work for the delivery of the company in the pizza restaurants, and factories.

"bleeding my heart", he says with genuine feeling. "You have already given up so much. Why do we have to punish you again?"

Jane Durkin, assistant Director for registration with the GMC, sighs when I talk to her about the waste of human potential. It reminds me that the main concern of the GMC is to protect patients and to ensure that all doctors registered with the of The Body the relevant skills. She sounds as frustrated as Yemane supporters, if you met made told of the efforts of the GMC to contact with the Eritrean authorities, and the utter silence of these efforts have yet.

If I remind you that other European countries have adopted, the same papers, the Yemane has as proof of training, she admits that this is a reasonable point, but says she can't comment on other countries practices.

"We don't want to build barriers," she says. "But The Law requires of us, the validation of the qualifications. "

But it is realistic to expect that a political refugee, fled for his life, which has all of its documentation and professional papers in a neat folder, stamped and supported by the very authoritarian regime, he escaped?

Jane Durkin known that the paperwork was the GMC requesting will almost certainly remain out of reach.

Apotheke in Asmara, capital of Eritrea, I ask you to repeat yourself, to ensure that I understood.

refugees and asylum seekers, middlesbrough, doctors, long reads, eritrea

Source of news: bbc.com