Ethiopia Ranks First In The Immigration Of Medical Professionals

Addis Ababa, October 08, 2002 (WIC)- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed that Ethiopia ranked first among other African countries in the number of immigrant Medical Professionals and other intellectuals.

IOM country representative, Dr. Meera Sethi, told Walta that with only 485 specialists and 33 sub-specialists in the country, Ethiopia has already lost more than a 3rd of its doctors.

According to Dr. Sethi, between 1968-1996, every year 238 skilled individuals sent for scholarship did not return with 49 per cent of the total Ethiopian immigrants to the USA being employed in professional or technical capacity.

Dr. Sethi, attributed the exodus of African Professionals and their hesitation to return to the lack of conducive environments such as poor working conditions, low salaries, human rights violations, lack of higher education opportunities and absence of peace and security.

Inefficient policies, weak government ownership, lack of trust on the part of the diaspora, lack of brain exchange at intra-regional level and mismatch between supply of professionals and local demand also contributed a lot, she added.

Dr. Sethi who disclosed that such a huge immigration of professionals was aggravating the economic and technological stagnation and regression of African countries also underscored the need for reversing the situation.

Thus IOM was currently trying to develop strategies that reverse the negative effects of brain drain thereby facilitating the use of the knowledge and expertise of the diaspora for home country development, it was learnt.

She said, IOM has helped the return of 66 Ethiopians who were placed in priority area such as education, public and private sector.

Dr. Sethi appreciated the effort the Ethiopian government was currently exerting to facilitate the return of Ethiopians in diaspora mainly through the General Directorate with the Ministry of Foreign affairs.