While Nigerian hospitals continue to suffer from insufficient doctors and other health personnel, over 13,000 healthcare workers left the country for the UK in the past year, Premium Times reports.
According to Premium Times, a new report by the UK government showed that the 13,609 Nigerian healthcare workers granted working visas within the period are second only to the 42,966 from India.
It says, UK immigration report released on Thursday, Nigeria is second only to Indians in the number of visas granted for the ‘Skilled Worker – Health & Care’ with 14 per cent (13,609) of the total.
India has the highest in this category with 45 per cent (42,966) of the total while The Philippines is third with 11 per cent (11,021).
However, it is not only healthcare workers that are leaving Nigeria to work in the UK.
Nigerians are also the second highest recipients of the ‘worker visa’, second only to Indians.
In the year ending June 2022, Nigerians made up 15,772 of the ‘worker’ visas granted; a 303 per cent increase when compared to the 3,918 worker visas granted in 2019.
India, which ranked first, received 102,981 work visa grants. The Philippines ranked third with 12,826; Zimbabwe fourth with 8,378 and the United States fifth with 7,748.
According to the report by the UK Home Office, “in the year ending June 2022, ‘Worker’ visa grants increased by 96 per cent (+108,794) to 222,349 compared with 2019, and now represent 67 per cent of all work visas.”
It added that there were 87,266 grants of ‘Skilled Worker’ visas and an additional 96,249 grants of ‘Skilled Worker – Health & Care’ visas.
The top three nationals granted ‘Skilled Worker’ visas are Indians, accounting for 39 per cent (34,186), followed by United States nationals with 6 per cent (5,637) and South Africans with 4 per cent (3,578).
“Grants for ‘Skilled Worker’ visas have grown every quarter since they were first introduced in December 2020, and together represent over half (55%) of all work visas granted in the latest year,” the report said. (Read the rest in Premium Times.)
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