The United Kingdom has ceased “active recruitment” of trained and experienced health and social care staff from Nigeria and 53 other countries throughout the world, the most of which are African.
The United Kingdom placed Nigeria and the other nations on its red list in its updated ‘Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel in England,’ which was based on the World Health Organization Workforce Support and Safeguard List, 2023.
The other countries on the red list include Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, and Lesotho.
Others are Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Pakistan , Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
“There must be no active international recruitment from countries on the red list, unless there is an explicit government-to-government agreement to support managed recruitment activities that are undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement,” the UK said in its updated policy on social and health workers released in March 2023.
The British Government, on the other hand, stated that the list does not preclude individual health and social care personnel from applying for jobs in the UK “of their own accord and without being targeted by a third party, such as a recruitment agency or employer (known as a direct application).”
The UK further stated that the limitations do not apply to health workers from red-listed nations who do not live in that country or another red-listed country.
The halt in active recruiting of Nigerian health and social workers comes amid controversy over Nigeria’s lower chamber’s decision to require medical graduates to work in Nigeria for five years before being awarded a full license.
The Medical and Dental Practitioners Act (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was recently passed for second reading in the House of Representatives, and it seeks to prevent Nigerian-trained doctors, nurses, and other health workers from emigrating to work in Europe and other parts of the world until they have served the country for five years.
For decades, Nigerian doctors and nurses have made up a sizable proportion of the fleeing young and skilled individuals, a process known as brain drain or informally known as ‘japa,’ which means to escape.
The number of Nigerian health personnel emigrating to the UK and other countries increased, particularly following the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020.
Doctors and nurses in Nigeria have repeatedly engaged in industrial actions to protest poor welfare, unpaid salaries, and other unfavorable working conditions, but despite numerous government promises, both at the federal and state levels, these issues have not been satisfactorily addressed, leading to a mass exodus of skilled health practitioners, who are mostly embraced in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, among others.
