Although Dr. Yasmine Chacon worked as a radiologist in her country of origin, El Salvador, her scientific degree was not recognized in Spain, forcing her to work in cleaning houses in a remote village in the Valencia region, eastern Spain. José Alejandro Pinto was a doctor in Venezuela, but since he did not obtain permission to practice the profession, he is observing the epidemic of the new epidemic "Corona" virus while sitting in his apartment in Madrid, as well as Lucas Veras of Uruguay, he treated dozens of cases of malaria patients in the Republic The Democratic Republic of the Congo, as a nurse's assistant, but does not have residency papers, and earns his living by making repairs at home.
In fact, these people are not the only ones to live in these conditions, as there are hundreds of foreigners who specialize in the medical sector and live in Spain, and they are eager to provide assistance to the country that was struck by the Corona epidemic, but the obstacles that immigration services and foreigners have set, in addition to routine procedures Followed and required to acknowledge their testimonies, they confirm that they will not be able to do anything in the face of the crisis, and they are sitting in their homes. Yasmine Chacon (31 years old) met with Juan Jose Hernandez (32 years old) at the College of Medicine in the Salvadoran capital, and they completed their studies in radiology in 2014, and we were able to work in a hospital and they have two children currently, but the couple had to leave everything behind to escape From local violence gangs in their country. In September 2018 they applied for asylum in Spain and now they have legal residency, and they have permission to work, but their medical certificates have not been recognized yet, and Shakun works in house cleaning and helping the elderly, and Hernandez has not yet been able to find work, and he says «I submitted requests "In order to work in cleaning the stores, I even applied to work in orange picking, but until now no one had called me."
Venezuelan doctor Jose Alejandro Pinto feels as if a war has broken out, that he is unable to provide assistance to the injured, and his fiancée, Yessica Moi, who is also unable to provide assistance despite being a nurse and cardiologist, has experience, and Spain desperately needs it in the current crisis. But José and his fiancée do not have a work permit, so all they do now is stay home.
Pinto's testimony was recognized before his arrival in Spain, and he is also an accredited doctor in Madrid. He even attended training to treat Corona patients, but his application for asylum is still recent, and although he had worked at a medical center in Spain, they asked him for his social security number . "I asked them to give me permission to work only," Pinto said, and despite Spain's shortage of medical personnel in the current crisis, and the help of medical students in recent years, and retired doctors, foreigners still have a lot to do with routine procedures.
Many ministries are considering proposals for a new process that would allow immigrants with university qualifications, or that they have succeeded in examining jurisdiction, to request accreditation of their degrees, in addition to permission to work together, and this process applies to asylum seekers like Pinto, but it is still a restriction studying.
According to sources familiar with the process, the Ministry of Interior wants to make it clear that the process will not include the conditions of illegal aliens in the country, and that it will not contribute to increasing the speed of accreditation of certificates, which usually take six months.
Work permissions
The Association of Venezuelan Doctors in Spain estimates that hundreds of qualified medical professionals in Spain do not have work permits, and hundreds of these are located in the capital Madrid, which is the primary destination for Venezuelan immigrants. Medical unions in Argentina, Colombia and Cuba have offered to help fight the virus in Spain. A few days ago, Lucas Veras, who is not a member of any federation, expressed his frustration, in a message he posted on Facebook, as a result of the situation in which he was living, and received dozens of messages from people living the same situation.
The Association of Venezuelan Physicians in Spain estimates that hundreds of qualified medical professionals in Spain do not have work permits.