UK introduces new stringent measures to limit the recruitment of international health workers

NIGERIAN health workers intending on travelling to the UK in search of work will find it a bit more difficult to relocate after the government introduced a new set of stringent rules under an updated Code of Practice (CoP) that will affect 47 developing nations.

Under the new regime, the UK is effectively suspending the international recruitment of health and care workers from Nigeria and 46 other countries. According to Africa Check, about 5,250 Nigerian-trained doctors are work for the British National Health Service as at April 2018 and this number is not set to rise with the new guidelines.

According to UK health authorities, CoP provides safeguards against active recruitment from 47 countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards list. According to the UK Department of Health and Social Care, this new policy will help to meet the UK’s target of delivering 50,000 more domestic nurses by 2024.

According to the authorities, the new policy is in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) advice on ethical recruitment to promote effective, fair and sustainable international recruitment practices. Under the new regime, UK recruiters are not permitted to actively recruit from these 47 countries unless there is a government-to-government agreement in place for managed recruitment.

A UK government spokesman said: "The UK has updated its code of practice for the international recruitment of health and social care staff to align with the World Health Organization, widening the global market from which the UK can ethically recruit. This will provide increasing numbers of international staff with the opportunity to come and work in the UK’s health and social care sectors to deliver world-class care.”

Affected countries include Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo Democratic Republic of, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lesotho and Liberia.