UK Places Nigeria On Red List, Withdraws Recruitment Of Nigerian Medical Workers

The Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has placed Nigeria on its red list and will no longer put into consideration the Nigerian health workers on targeted recruitment.

VerseNews Nigeria reports that the UK government made this known in a statement titled ‘Code of Practice for the international recruitment of Health and social care personnel in England.”

“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.”

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This Online News Media reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) last month listed Nigeria among 55 countries that are facing pressing health workforce challenges.

According to the UK government, the countries will no longer be actively targeted for recruitment by health and social care employers unless there is a government-to-government agreement.

The UK General Medical Council’s data disclosed that there are 11,055 Nigerian-trained doctors presently in the UK.

Nigeria has the third-highest number of foreign doctors working in the United Kingdom. The top countries are India and Pakistan.

However, Hon. Abiodun Ganiyu Johnson has in a bill proposed that fresh medical graduates should be mandated to provide professional services to Nigeria for five years before receiving a full registration and license to practice.