Quebec Recruitment Drive Draws Hundreds of Moroccan Nurses, Straining Morocco’s Healthcare System

This exodus of Moroccan executives is facilitated each year by the Journées Québec missions, which are organized in the kingdom, reports Hespress, specifying that the province plans to recruit 3,000 new foreign workers by March 2023.

Meanwhile, Morocco is facing a severe shortage of qualified nurses. This need is estimated at more than 50,000 professionals, according to the Ministry of Health, and 34,000 according to the Movement of Nurses and Health Technicians of Morocco (MITSM).

Questioned, Fatima-Zahra Belline, a member of the MITSM, said she was "shocked" by this figure, stressing that this is a real phenomenon that is accentuating day by day. And to add that "within the Movement, we have sounded the alarm on this scourge of the exodus of nurses on many occasions. In this sense, we have called on the authorities to focus on this category of health executives since their main grievance, and which pushes them to flee the country, will not cost the State anything."

To explain this brain drain, the official denounces a climate of "congestion" and unfavorable working conditions. "It is not the poor working conditions, or the meager salaries that this category of health executives receive that push them to flee the country. But rather the legal proceedings against them. At any moment, due to the weak legal framework that regulates the profession, they risk ending up behind bars," she lamented.