Charities are being urged to support volunteers from EU countries, amid fears their work could be devastated by Brexit.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is urging members to do all they can to help persuade European colleagues to stay in the country. Advice to charity bosses includes helping volunteers and employees with concerns over immigration status or visa requirements, challenging hate crime and taking part in workforce surveys about the numbers affected.
SCVO says that even though legally EU nationals are still able to stay in Scotland, many no longer feel welcome or confident to make long term plans.
The initiative comes after Camphill Scotland said it feared the impact of Brexit on the 11 communities for disabled people which it runs. Camphill says 68 per cent of its short term volunteer co-workers and more than half of its long term workers originate from EU countries outside Britain.
Dr Neil Henery, Director of Camphill Scotland, said: “We are deeply concerned about the potential impact of Brexit upon Camphill communities. Camphill was founded in Aberdeen by Austrian refugees and remains a profoundly European movement.”
John Downie, Director of Public Affairs at SCVO, said charities and public services were strengthened by the contribution of EU workers. “It is crucial they are supported to continue doing the great work they do,” he said.
James Cant, Director at British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland, said EU nationals were also key to scientific research work.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel