Anastasia Okechukwu Reporting
Nigeria and other 46 countries have been placed by the United Kingdom Government, on the list of countries that should not be actively targeted for recruitment by health, social care employers, recruitment organisations, agencies, collaborations, or contracting bodies.
This is coming one month after the World Health Organisation (WHO) listed Nigeria among 55 countries that are facing pressing health workforce challenges.
According to the UK government, countries on the WHO list are graded red in the code unless there is a government-to-government agreement between a partner country before it will be targeted for recruitment and added to the amber list.
This was expressed in a statement on the website of the UK government 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.”