Brain drain: UK places Nigeria on red list for health workers’ recruitment

Brain drain: UK places Nigeria on red list for health workers’ recruitment

The United Kingdom has placed Nigeria on the red list of countries that should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers.

This is coming one month after the World Health Organisation listed 55 countries, including Nigeria facing the most pressing health workforce challenges related to Universal Health Coverage.

The United Kingdom Government said Nigeria and other countries on the red list should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers unless there was a government-to-government agreement.

According to the information obtained from the website of the UK government titled ‘Code of Practice for the international recruitment of Health and social care personnel in England,’ it said country identification follows the methodology contained in the 10-year review of relevance and effectiveness of the WHO global code of practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel.

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“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.”