LONDON/HARARE – Angeline Moyo, a UK-based Zimbabwean nurse, author, and mental health advocate, says the UK visa scheme is doing more harm than good for many Zimbabweans. Her warning comes amid reports of mental health crises, “forced migration,” and complaints of care worker exploitation. Moyo, whose books include Zimbabwe’s Silent Crisis and After the Injection: A Memoir of Survival and Resistance, stresses that policies intended to help vulnerable people have instead exposed them to abuse.
Many Forced Into Psychiatric Institutions
Angeline Moyo tells the story of Gaynor Fundira, “a Zimbabwean woman who found herself detained under the Mental Health Act in Britain. By the time the ward doors opened, her liberty had already been signed away. She asked for help, but what she got was a risk score, a file number, and months of being ‘managed’ rather than heard.” She asks:
“How many Zimbabwean women have been sectioned and forced into psychiatric institutions without being listened to?”
According to Moyo, Black people in England are detained under the Mental Health Act at rates far in excess of their White counterparts, “228 detentions per 100,000 Black people compared with 64 per 100,000 White people.” She also describes the UK’s carer visa scheme, which was meant to fill staff shortages, as “a vector for exploitation,” saying migrant care workers are “charged £5,000–£20,000 in illegal fees, promised full-time work and decent housing, only to find overcrowding, underpayment, or no work at all.”
Moyo relates her own experience in which she “endured years of racist bullying, developed Post Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED), only to be sectioned and forcibly injected with Clopixol. The despair that followed led to an attempted murder suicide. I survived, but spent over five years in secure mental health detention under Ministry of Justice control.”
This Is Not An Isolated Cry
Between June 2022 and June 2023, the UK granted 20,152 health and care worker visas to Zimbabweans, a sharp 372% rise from 2020. Since 2021, more than 4,000 doctors and nurses have left Zimbabwe, draining a fragile system where there are just 1.9 nurses per 1,000 people, compared with the UK’s 8.2.
Inside the NHS, reliance on foreign labour is growing, 20.4% of staff in England are non-UK nationals, up from 13% only a few years ago. While this recruitment fills gaps, it has also opened the door to abuse. Zimbabwean care workers report paying illegal fees, enduring poor housing, and struggling with irregular or underpaid work. Many also face depression, isolation, and trauma, proving Angeline Moyo’s warning is neither isolated nor exaggerated.
Where Policy Falls Short
Angeline Moyo argues the system fails on two fronts: poor regulation of recruitment and inadequate mental health care. She says,
“What we need now is trauma-informed, culturally competent mental health care… regulation of the carer visa scheme to prevent exploitation… and bilateral cooperation between the UK and Zimbabwe to protect human dignity.”
She also calls for transparent data on how many Zimbabweans are detained under the Mental Health Act, alongside formal recognition of Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder (PTED) as a legitimate condition. Without these steps, she warns, exploitation will persist unchecked and thousands will continue to fall through the cracks of both health and immigration systems.
Limited Choices For Zimbabweans
Zimbabwe’s health system is crumbling under the weight of low pay, drug shortages, and hyperinflation. Since 2021, thousands of doctors and nurses have left, leaving already fragile public hospitals under immense strain. Their departure deprives the country of essential skills while exposing migrants themselves to new traumas abroad.
For the UK, the benefits are immediate but double-edged. The NHS, already buckling under staff shortages and rising demand, now relies heavily on foreign health workers. Overseas recruitment fills urgent gaps, but it raises pressing questions of fairness, exploitation, and the ethics of draining talent from struggling nations. The result is a cycle in which Zimbabwe bleeds professionals, while Britain grows dependent on their sacrifice.
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