The United Kingdom (UK) government has not barred Ghanaian health workers from traveling to the UK, according to Bright Simons, the Vice President of IMANI Africa. Reports had emerged that the UK government had barred the recruitment of health workers from Ghana and 53 other countries.
In a series of tweets shared on Monday, April 10, 2023, the IMANI Vice President clarified that recruitment agencies in Ghana and the other listed countries had been stopped from actively recruiting health workers for the UK. He explained that the World Health Organization (WHO) had been forcing the UK to stop recruiting health workers from the 54 countries since 2020. The WHO had placed Ghana on its safeguard list to prevent the recruitment of health professionals from the country because they were needed locally.
Simons stated that the list, based on WHO’s 2010 Global Code of Practice, is voluntary, and the UK had been lax in enforcement despite domesticating the code. WHO reaffirmed the list in January 2023, and pressure from UK health unions increased on the UK to comply and stop recruiting from the red-listed countries. He added that red-listed health workers were not barred from migrating, but their “active recruitment” was barred, meaning that employment agencies could not seek to attract health workers from such countries.
The National Health Service (NHS) of the UK issued a statement explaining that the listed countries have a UHC Service Coverage Index lower than 50 and a density of doctors, nurses, and midwives below the global median (48.6 per 10,000 population). The list does not prevent individual health and social care personnel from independently applying to health and social care employers in the UK.
The countries placed on the red list of ‘No active recruitment’ under the code are Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Republic of Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In summary, Ghanaian health workers have not been barred from traveling to the UK, but recruitment agencies in Ghana and other listed countries have been stopped from actively recruiting health workers for the UK. The red-listed countries have a UHC Service Coverage Index lower than 50 and a density of doctors, nurses, and midwives below the global median. The list does not prevent individual health and social care personnel from independently applying to health and social care employers in the UK.
Leave feedback about this