Imagine uprooting your life, spending thousands of euros, jumping through every hoop - only to land in a country with no job waiting for you.

That’s the nightmare facing migrant nurses arriving in Ireland, scammed by recruitment agencies promising work that simply doesn’t exist.

Varghese Joy from Migrant Nurses Ireland said that the legitimate route for migrant workers to come into the country is to receive an offer from an employer.

This offer is then shown to an agency which will help them acquire a work permit.

“With that, they get a visa to travel to Ireland, I think it’s for a short period of three months,” he told Moncrieff.

“Then they come to Ireland, they need to appear for an aptitude test done by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, in conjunction with the nursing board.

“Or they have to take an adaptation, which is, say, a six-to-12 weeks training or evaluation period.

“Once they are successful, they get a registration number to work as a nurse, then with that they apply for a critical skill permit which allows them to work as a registered nurse in Ireland.”

Nurse playing with baby girl (2-5 months). Alamy,.com

However, Mr Joy said many nurses who come to Ireland on what they believe to be a legitimate job offer only realise they have been scammed after taking these tests.

“When they contacted the employer, they were told that surprisingly, ‘No, there is no job here’,” he said.

“Some nurses contacted the agents and asked, ‘When can I start?’ And they were told, ‘No, there is no job, that job is gone, you need to find another job’.

“We heard that some agents try to help, ask them to wait to get another job, and you know, waiting in Ireland without a salary in cities like Dublin and Cork, the exorbitant amount of rent, they find themselves in a very difficult situation.

“Some agents did not even help them, they were not contactable, so the nurses fell into this trap.”

Recruitment fees

According to Mr Joy, these scam agencies generate profits by charging the nurses recruitment fees – despite Irish law stipulating this to be illegal.

“What I understand from hearing from a few nurses [is that] the job offer letter was a forgery, is a fabrication, or a fake one,” he said.

“[The fake document] is submitted for a Visa, the Department probably didn’t know.”

Mr Joy said he understand that the Department of Justice signs off on these Visas under the assumption that the job offer is legitimate.

He said going forward, Migrant Nurses Ireland is calling for all job applications are cross-referenced with health officials to ensure that they are for legitimate postings.

Main image: Sad nurse sitting on the chair