HARARE – The Zimbabwean government has blocked over 4,000 local nurses from taking up jobs in the United Kingdom, citing the need to protect the country’s fragile public healthcare system, which continues to grapple with staff shortages and increasing pressure from a rising disease burden.
The move comes amid a growing exodus of healthcare professionals seeking better pay and working conditions abroad. In recent years, thousands of Zimbabwean nurses and doctors have migrated to countries such as the UK, Australia, and Canada, driven by low wages, poor working conditions, and lack of career advancement opportunities at home.
Government sources say the decision to withhold clearance for more than 4,000 nurses was made in an effort to curb the worsening brain drain and ensure that the country’s healthcare institutions are not left severely understaffed.
A senior official in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government was alarmed by the number of nurses applying to leave and has since tightened vetting procedures for those seeking to work abroad.
“We have had to temporarily halt the issuance of verification letters for a large number of applicants heading to the UK,” the official said. “While we recognise the right of health professionals to seek opportunities elsewhere, we must also balance that with the urgent need to keep our hospitals running.”
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has been actively recruiting nurses from Zimbabwe in recent years, taking advantage of a bilateral agreement that previously allowed for the deployment of critical health staff. However, the Zimbabwean government has increasingly expressed concern that the arrangement is being exploited to poach scarce health personnel, rather than support mutual development.
The Health Services Board (HSB) has also warned that the mass departure of nurses is threatening to collapse services at major referral hospitals such as Parirenyatwa, Mpilo, and Harare Central. Rural health centres, already suffering from chronic underfunding, have been hit even harder.
In response, the government is now exploring strategies to retain healthcare workers, including the introduction of retention allowances, improved working conditions, and more training opportunities. There have also been calls for the review of bilateral health worker migration agreements to include return service clauses or compensation mechanisms.
Nurses’ unions, meanwhile, have condemned the move to block migration, arguing that the government should instead focus on fixing the root causes driving health workers to leave in the first place.
“The state cannot force professionals to stay in a broken system,” said a spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (ZINA). “If the working conditions and remuneration were competitive, nurses would not be desperate to leave.”
The development adds to the broader debate about how developing nations can balance the rights of their professionals to seek greener pastures with the urgent need to maintain functioning public services.
