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Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department
2.9.3 Nurses and midwives as refugees: transferring skills
Numerous refugees have professional health care training. In countries around the world these
skills are being lost or inadequately used in the host country. In 2003, a database assembled by
the British Medical Association listed 839 refugee doctors in the UK.
Many of them found it hard to find information, to pass registration exams with the General
Medical Council and find medical jobs.
Many refugee health professionals are denied the ability to put their skills to use in their country
of asylum, due in part to the fact that many are unable to bring with them during their flight
evidence of their qualifications.
Even when they have managed to bring this documentation with them, many find that these are
not recognized by their country of asylum. However, the ability of refugee health workers to fill
vacancies in host country health services is slowly being recognized – some examples of good
practice are noted below A project to support refugee nurses was established by the Portuguese
section of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Lisbon in September 2004.
It aimed to support non-EU nurses, whose academic qualifications did not match those of
professionals in Portugal, to obtain recognition of their qualifications.
The Jesuit Refugee Service commented that the scheme helped to reduce nurse shortages in
Portugal. At the end of 2004, 10 nurses were training in hospital and health care settings.
A further 174 nurses had applied for the programmed.
Refugee organizations, employment agencies and local health authorities in the UK are also
working to promote refugees into the nursing workforce.
In 2004, the UK government announced more funding for the Refugee Health Professional
Steering Group, set up in 2001 to provide training and support for refugee health professionals.
60 Academic Year 2025/2026
