Morocco also suffers brain drain as 3,700 doctors, engineers, others leave yearly —Minister

The Moroccan Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, Abdellatif Miraoui, has lamented the brain drain that has hit the country in recent years after announcing that nearly 3,700 professionals including doctors and engineers, leave each year to work abroad.

Miraoui who made the disclosure at a ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of the Mohammed V University in Rabat on Monday, noted that approximately 700 doctors and between 2,000 to 3,000 engineers, in addition to 30,000 workers in the field of tourism, emigrate each year for various reasons.

The minister lamented that the number of the doctors who left Morocco was around 600 in 2018, representing 30% of the medical and pharmacy graduates for that year, describing the loss as “immeasurable” for the North African country.

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“The numbers serve to raise awareness of the gravity and negative repercussions of the country’s brain drain problem on a number of sectors,” he said.

“Morocco has long been facing a human capital flight problem in sectors like healthcare and other skilled jobs.

“The combination of comparatively unattractive employment offers in the country and a high demand for doctors and engineers in Europe or North America have led to a significant number of graduated preferring to find work abroad,” he added.

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