Comments on the BNP article about Filipino workers in Britain say it all

On Tuesday 6 October I met Mr Emmanuel Geslani, a Filipino recruitment consultant who was invited to respond to disparaging remarks made about him and published in a BNP website article of 26 August.

Mr Geslani explained to me that the majority of Filipinos moving to the UK from the Philippines were on study-work visas.

He described a complex network of agreements negotiated between the Philippine-based recruiment agencies, their offices in Britain, the educational colleges in the UK offering study-work courses, the care and nursing homes in Britain that were able to offer work as part of the study-work courses, the British Embassy in the Philippines that issued the study-work visas after checking all requirements, and the banks that offered loans to finance the students so that they were able to pay for their courses in advance.

Also involved were local British landlords who house the working students, and the travel agencies that transport them.

At the heart of these interconnections are the aspirational, qualified, and hard-working Filipinos - mainly women in their mid or late twenties ready to work hard for the sake of a brighter future.

These Filipinas already know some English and already hold some hard-earned qualifications from the Philippines, but are willing to start studying again from scratch in British colleges on study-work programmes in order to upgrade their English and their skills into marketable and internationally-accepted qualifications.

As Mr Geslani explained, if there were enough British people prepared to work in British nursing and care homes, then there would be no need to recruit abroad.

What was conveyed to me above all was the ambition, resolve and dignity of these Filipino applicants to Britain, and their determination to work hard in a foreign country in order to better themselves.

In stark contrast, here are some comments that were posted on the BNP website following the article entitled "British jobs for Filipino workers".

from derbyram: CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY. 2 days ago I saw on the news that unemployment could go well over the 3 million mark. Now we find out that 150,000 poorly educated ex hookers, drug dealers etc clutching false or at best meaningless certificates of qualification to take the jobs of British workers. It beggars belief. 15 - 20 years ago(before the place bacame unstable) we were sending British contract workers to Manilla to do work that the locals couldn't do, several mates of mine earned some very good money. Then, a doctor over there was basically someone who could spell aspirin. Obviously Labour will set higher standards .... they can apply to be a doctor if they can spell Ibuprofen .... oh ... and work for £2.60p an hour !!!

from vag: Nothing is ever done about it. The care homes around here are full of foreign workers. When i get old before I cannot fend for myself it will be a one way ticket to Switzerland. The thought of having unqualified people taking car of me after i have sold my property to pay for it beggars belief.

from TrueBrit: Only a corrupt British government would have a policy of open borders and employment opportunities for foreign workers when the economy is in bad shape and Britons are looking for work. This nonsense has to stop, it is sucking the life blood out of the country and enough is enough!

from sendthemback: It's one third world deadbeat,scrounger and sponger after another. Every single day brings another story like this with this government. Why have they so much contempt for their own people? The only consolation is that there isn't going to be another Labour government. "still in the wanted list by job recruitment specialists in the UK" Once again it's these agencies that's the probelm. They can make more money on foreign workers than they can from Brits. They charge them excessive rent and transportation costs. They can't get away with it with Brits quite so easily. The government should clampdown on the agency fat cats.

from SteveGray2008: But we love them long time? Maybe we will have as many massage parlours as curry houses before you know it?

There is even a Facebook BNP page dedicated to more stupid and unkind comments of this sort, people (often with photographs beside their names) openly expressing hateful remarks about Filipinos on a public site, with no apparent restraint and no apparent accountability. For example:

Paula Nugent: Then 'our' unemployed should be given the necessary training to do the job. Where are all these Filipinos going to live?

Bradd Harker:what a load of shit!!! we should be able to work in out own land

Nicholas Hunter Folkes: Filipinos are gold diggers, they'd marry your grandfather and clear out all the silver and kick dysfunctional idiots like you onto the street. Britain does not need foreign labour in good times or bad. Cheap foreign labour reduces wages, increases house and rental costs, increase welfare costs, increases crime and anti-social ... Read morebehaviour. Remember toad, Britian is first world and the Phillipines is third world, do you get my drift. Import these blowflies and you will go down to their level.
Paula, the Filipinos will build shanty towns like Smokey Mountain in Britain. We have plenty of these free loaders in Australia, do not let them into Britain. Their qualifications are not the same standard as Britians. The more foreign rubbish you let in the weaker the British economy will be. Vote BNP for a return to common sense and British first policies.

I am in despair at the crude ignorance and lack of respect for others displayed in these comments by BNP supporters. How can the BNP website and Facebook host such bigoted opinions?

I urge you to 'report' these comments, as I have done, just click on the 'report' button after each vile remark. If enough of us report them, then maybe Facebook will take some action.

In reprinting some of these disgusting comments here I hold these BNP-supporting individuals to account for their cruel and unfair bigotry towards Filipinos.

Filipinos on study-work programmes are coming to Britain in a perfectly legal way, to do hard work the British disdain, on minimum or low wages, caring for our own British elderly and sick.

If anyone has the right to complain it is these Filipino workers, but they are just too kind and too busy studying and taking care of our people to do so.

Here I do it for them.

By Barbara Suzuki