Making the world pay for brain-drain

By N Sathiya Moorthy

If someone thought that President Ranil Wickremesinghe was funny about it, he was not. If anything, it sounded more Quixotic than possibly predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s misadventure with ‘organic farming’.

According to reports, at an official meeting the other day, Wickremesinghe asked Health Ministry officials to devise a strategy to seek compensation from foreign nations that recruited Sri Lankan doctors. He also wanted them to raise the issue at WHO-sponsored conferences and such other fora.

“Press it for other countries also,” the President reportedly told the officials. Sounding serious about it, he asked the officials to first discuss it with the Health Secretary, and then work with the Foreign Ministry, too.

Wickremesinghe drew a parallel. According to him, the compensation mechanism can be similar to the Loss & Damage Fund that was established at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27). “Your people are leaving. That’s not our fault,” he said, taking England’s name as an example. “Either change your system and keep your doctors or otherwise compensate us for that,” he said and added that if a deal over doctors could work, then the Government could consider extending the arrangement to cover Sri Lankan engineers.

Genuine but…

The President’s concerns about brain-drain are genuine and welcome. But this is certainly not the way to address it. After all, much of it began happening after last year’s economic crisis though there used to be an annual trickle, yet. It is both about the idea of brain-drain, and more importantly that of the actual shortage of medical professionals across the board, especially in Government hospitals, post-crisis.

The question is if brain-drain on the healthcare front owed it to the Government’s last year decision to let public sector employees to go on a five-year leave without pay, for them to try their fortune elsewhere. It was seen as one of the multiple solutions in the Government’s multi-pronged approach to augment the nation’s forex reserves, especially the US dollar.

The assumption was that the Government servants would (have to) come back after the initial five-year period, and would have sent in enough forex to their families, hence the nation. That was not to be the case with doctors, who invariably went to the West, where citizenship was not a real issue – never to return.

Given the existing shortage of Government doctors in the country and the anticipated additional shortages, especially of super-speciality experts, they were barred from seeking overseas jobs. They have since been scooting away behind the back of the authorities, through the international airport, Kattanayake.

Bonded labour?

The answer is simple and straight, but it is anybody’s guess why it did not occur to President Wickremesinghe, otherwise known for his smartness, cunning and general understanding of men and matters. Maybe, he is more focussed on earning more money for the nation, this one through ‘compensation for brain-drain’ than identifying solutions that are within Sri Lanka and within the powers of the Government.

There are multiple ways the Government can still solve the brain-drain issue, if it is serious about it. First and foremost, it could begin by executing a bond with medical students at the admission-stage, binding them to serving the nation for a fixed period of five years.

Maybe, that experience with a multitude of people with different health issues might prepare them better for overseas jobs. If such is the case, then the Government can think in terms of expanding on the scope and reach of such bonds.

If someone were to call it ‘bonded labour’ and argue that it was ultra vires to fundamental rights for work and movement, guaranteed by the Constitution, then, the Government could seek the Supreme Court’s views and legislate in the matter. Such legislation would help, as the President is already talking about brain-drain in the engineering field.

In so doing, the Government could stamp the passports of medical students and professionals accordingly, with a warning that their prospective employer overseas would he sued – in Sri Lankan courts – along with the candidate concerned, for compensation of the kind that the President is now talking about.

The reasons are not far to seek. It is all about brain-drain affecting the nation’s health services in this past year after the economic crisis. This was after some hospital deaths were attributed to either shortage of speciality doctors, or medicines and medical equipment, or two or all of them put together, in these early days of economic recovery.

What the President has hence said is about making money out of brain-drain for those living in the country. It was not aimed at stopping the brain-drain so that there is no shortage of medical professionals for attending to the multiple health ailments and consequent need of the nationals who chose to, or were forced to stay back.

Does it mean that President Wickremesinghe has put the cart before the horse – deliberately or without a second-thought?

(The writer is a policy analyst & political commentator, based in Chennai, India. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)