Lagos, April 10, 2023 – The United Kingdom will no longer recruit Nigerian health workers as Nigeria has been listed among countries that should not be targeted for employment.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed Nigeria among 55 countries that are facing pressing health workforce challenges.
These countries, according to the UK government, will no longer be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers unless there is a government-to-government agreement.
UK said this in a statement on its website titled ‘Code of Practice for the international recruitment of Health and social care personnel in England’.
The statement read in part: “Consistent with the WHO Global Code of Practice principles and articles, and as explicitly called for by the WHO Global Code of Practice 10-year review, the listed countries should be prioritised for health personnel development and health system-related support, provided with safeguards that discourage active international recruitment of health personnel.
“Countries on the list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place to allow managed recruitment undertaken strictly in compliance with the terms of that agreement.
“Countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards list are graded red in the code.
“If a government-to-government agreement is put in place between a partner country, which restricts recruiting organisations to the terms of the agreement, the country is added to the amber list,” the country said.
The UK had suspended the recruitment of healthcare workers from Nigeria and 46 other countries in 2021.
The country said that the increasing scale of health and social care worker migration from low and lower-middle-income countries was affecting their countries health and social care goals.
Currently, there are 11,055 Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK, according to the UK General Medical Council.
Nigeria has the third-highest number of foreign doctors working in the United Kingdom.
The top countries are India and Pakistan. (GBN)
