Nurses, doctors leave Balkans to work in Germany

SARAJEVO: Nejra Isaretovic, a 25-year-old physiotherapist from Sarajevo, is busy these days studying German and taking driving lessons — key skills required for her new job in Germany.

Isaretovic is among thousands of nurses and physicians from across the Balkans seeking work in Western Europe, causing alarm among health officials that the countries may be left without trained medical staff in the near future.

“The state is pushing young people to leave, we get nothing — no jobs, no future, and most importantly, no security,” said Isaretovic, who could not find a job in her field in Bosnia.

Last year, 10,000 Bosnians applied for work permits in Germany, according to the Agency for Labour and Employment, which mediates between job applicants and German employers under a 2013 agreement between the two governments.

Since then, about 2,700 nurses have left the country of 3.5 million, 1,100 of them last year alone. Around 400 doctors are estimated to have left in 2016 and the same number expected to emigrate this year.

“The departures from Bosnia have been gradual so far but once they reach a momentum, it will be en masse, and may cause the health system to collapse,” said Meho Kovacevic, a 43-year-old orthopaedic surgeon working in the central town of Zenica.

The situation is similar in other Western Balkan countries.

The certificates that are required for physi- cians to work abroad have been issued for 1,600 doctors in Serbia over past two years, and nearly 1,300 in Croatia since it joined the EU in 2013.

With their economies still recovering from a decade of political and economic turmoil in the 1990s, and unemployment in double-digits, the former Yugoslav republics have few funds to spend on health care. Working conditions are poor and expensive modern medical equipment scarce.