The United Kingdom authorities have begun investigations into how more than 700 Nigerian nurses obtained certificates to work in Britain.
The nurses are suspected to have provided fraudulent qualifications and also thought to have used surrogates to sit for the qualification test Yunnik test centre in Nigeria, allowing them to become registered to work in the UK.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has asked 48 of the nurses already working in the NHS to retake the test, to prove they are qualified to treat patients.
Those nurses will also face individual hearings to clarify how they took, and passed, the test.
The NMC has consequently declared test results by 1,955 Nigerian trained health professionals to be invalid. Of those, the regulator cannot prove that fraud was used for 1,238. The 1,955 health professionals have been given three chances to resit the test, or they will be excluded from the register.
A further 669 Nigerian health staff applicants to the register are suspected of being fraudulent. Almost all of those applicants have been banned.
Speaking to HR magazine, Gary McIndoe, managing director of the immigration law firm Latitude Law, said: “The provision of fraudulent documentation – such as false competency test results – is a clear ground for refusal of a UK visa.”
McIndoe explained that if fraud is undiscovered by employers until after a candidate enters the UK, immigration law contains provisions for the Home Office to cancel a work visa and the employees’ permission to stay.
