Formal complaint made about me because I am housing a refugee who may or may not carry diseases

[Jynxed]

Please help me handle this as I am feeling very upset.

For a couple of years I have had occasional guests to stay under the Homes for Refugees scheme. This is where asylum seekers are awarded Right to Remain but the flip side of this is that they have to leave home office accommodation almost immediately, with no money and no support.

Last week I was asked to take in a young man who would be made homeless within 2 days and he arrived this weekend. He is a doctor and it came out in conversation that he had been exposed to TB through his work, had some bacteria markers, and was now receiving monitoring and treatment in the UK to treat this.

I have come across this before, but did a little research to check that there was no risk to my family. I was satisfied that latent TB is not a live disease, and treatment prevents it from developing, so in effect my guest did not have the disease, could not spread it, and was receiving treatment to ensure it could not develop.

I have a friend at work who helps me with translation and explaining strange British customs when needed, as she speaks a couple of languages common in the refugee community. I was telling her about my guest’s very early x/ray the next morning and about how to direct him.

Another colleague overheard and flipped her
lid. Lots of horrible comments about “these people coming over here and bringing their diseases “ and how I had put the whole office at risk without any consideration, and she was reporting me to the Director. I tried to explain that latent TB is not TB and of course I would not put my family at risk if there was any concern. She carried on shouting at me really aggressively, and made lots of remarks which I regard as pretty racist. She has submitted her complaint and I have been called to write a statement.

I felt really upset about it and would welcome any help to both support the fact that there is no risk, and that I have not broken any occupational health type rules. What do I say in my defence?!
Thanks for any help you can offer.

People like you are the root of the problems we have today. How many times did you plan to get the word 'racist' in your absurdly naive post.

Ah, found something about the 70% stat. But when you actually read about the research...

The authors stress, however, that there is “little evidence that the wider UK population is at risk of significant levels of transmission of disease from affected migrants, especially during normal social contact.”
They note that this information “needs to be conveyed to the general public since the fear of a perceived health threat can lead to prejudice which increases stigma and may have untoward public health consequences.”

If you had handled the topic with the gravitas it deserved (mortal disease, confidential medical info about a 3rd party) rather than gossip about it openly in public, maybe your colleague would have had a more appropriate reaction?

That she lashed out out of fear and shock is very human, even if very distasteful. That you went straight for a racist complaint shows your kindness and empathy doesn’t apply to all.

Virtue signalling at its lowest, TB is heavy, serious sh*t.

Of course doctors come here as refugees. I've been several in my work with asylum seekers and refugees.

And if you have latent TB as a white Brit you absolutely do have treatment. From the NHS website:
If you have TB but do not have symptoms (latent TB) you usually need to take antibiotics for 3 to 6 months

I expect op had 'mentionitis ' about her 'refugee', and when simply mentioning it only got "that's nice dear" responses, she purposefully mentioned the TB thing to cause controversy so that she could then do what she was waiting to do , go into the "you're all so racist unlike me" speech.

So we're all routinely screened for it are we ? To see if there's any calcifications in our lymph nodes ? Lung lavages just to check ? That'd be cheap wouldn't it ? I expect more of us have latent TB than you'd imagine.

Given your made-up nonsense about a non-existent Stasi locking people up, you're not in a position to criticise anyone else for disputing facts

You've made that whole post up purely in order to attack OP. Your prejudices are showing.

Probably because I contracted TB and almost died due to a non working immigrant that was taking from society and the only thing he gave in return was tb to the community.

OP wasn't gossiping in public. \

I really worry about the lack of basic comprehension skills around here. It seems to come out particularly at night time amongst people who like piling onto OPs.

To those who seemed to have missed the point, what I complained about was the shocking racist language users and statements made, most of which I haven’t detailed, but it was vile. Absolutely they had a right to be concerned, but if they had spoken to me about and asked for the actual facts, quietly and without shouting, I could have reassured her.
@nfkl You clearly have not read the thread, as your response ignores all of the details.

@changedchangeychange I am sorry you have had a rough time, but you cannot pin this on every migrant. The substance abuse and lack of compliance appears more significant than his country of birth. And you are wrong - plenty of refugees are doctors, lawyers, engineers, anything. Wars don’t discriminate.

No, we're not screened for TB. But immigrants are. Consequently you should be more worried about your fellow Brits than a refugee or other immigrant who's been tested.

Talking about the confidential health status of a 3rd party in front of strangers to the situation is gossiping in public

I’m so sorry your post has attracted some ill-informed judgements OP. I just popped to to say, despite the current difficulties, you are inspiring. We have a spare room and you’ve inspired me to explore taking a similar path.
I hope you are appropriately supported at work and this gets cleared up quickly x

There is no risk and your current guest will not be spreading anything. She is just showing her ignorance.

I sadly suspect the same.

I had once to wait for weeks to know whether the person I was sharing a confined space with had contagious or non-contagious TB. Happy days. Not as bad as you though, it must have been so scary.

TB is serious sh*t, you ignorants.

You can go on holiday to many countries and risk being back a disease. I remember two occasions this happened. One a school pupil whose father brought something nasty back from Nigeria his son caught it. It spread through the school, public health were involved.

Another case a couple mountain climbing in Peru brought something back. Hospital baffled that the illness would come and go. Sent off samples to the school of tropical medicine who finally identified it.

I'm glad that tb is treatable now. My mother spent a year in a sanitarium as a child.

I don’t know why I bother, but to save you the effort of reading the details, I spoke to one individual in a private office to ask her help in translating directions to where an X-ray was booked. TB screening is routine for all immigrants so i was not disclosing private health status. So, in summary I mentioned that an unnamed person needed directions to attend for routine screening, did not disclose any more about the person, and still I agreed with people that I could have been more discreet and not mentioned the screening at all. Lesson taken in - I’m not a professional, do not work in healthcare, am not paid, and clearly am not perfect. However, at least I have compassion for fellow human beings.

The post really illustrates the sort of person you are. Your experience has obviously made you very bitter. Have you thought of counselling?

Did you miss the bit in the OP about her colleague's racist remarks? Or are you one of those people who likes to deny that racism exists?

OP, you're doing an amazing thing by helping to house people who desperately need the support. I'm sorry that you've had to deal with the fuckwit colleague, but I strongly suspect that her bigotry is going to backfire on her. And so it should!

I'd rather have the immigrant than a bigot like you, and before you start wanging on about TB, my uncle caught it from a very legal Polish truck driver who worked for him, driving internationally, in 2010. (I bet you eat imported food - how do you think it gets here?)

We found out when he got very unwell, which was not long after he'd spent significant time with my baby DD. I had to pin her down whilst she was vaccinated with a very fucking big needle, and yet I feel no animosity towards immigrants, or my uncle, and my uncle just sees it as one of those things.

Do you ever travel internationally? If so, then you're a hypocrite.

You're a coward hiding behind a name change to spew your vitriol. Pathetic.

Your compassion is obviously selective.

But she didn't talk about anyone's confidential health status. Given that I pointed out that you hadn't read OP's posts properly, it's amazing that you didn't bother to double check before posting again.

Not as selective as the healthcare professional spewing bigotry. Doesn't really fit with the career choice.

How dare you.

You have absolutely no idea...

You ill informed person.