The United Kingdom’s Home Office has revoked the visas of several Nigerian nurses under investigation for alleged examination fraud, ordering them to leave the country.
According to Nursing Times, the affected nurses are still awaiting the outcomes of their appeals. However, they have received official letters from the Home Office instructing them to leave the UK starting next week.
The deportation order follows an ongoing probe by the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) into suspected malpractice at Yunnik Technologies Test Centre in Ibadan, Nigeria. The investigation, which began in 2023, was triggered after the NMC detected “anomalous data” in the computer-based test (CBT) for foreign nurses seeking UK registration.
The CBT is a crucial part of the UK’s nursing qualification process and is typically taken in applicants’ home countries. After reviewing the data, the NMC determined that 48 registered nurses and 669 applicants might have obtained their test results fraudulently. As a result, the NMC declared all test results from the Yunnik centre invalid.
The affected individuals were set to have their cases assessed by an independent panel to determine whether fraud was committed. However, in February 2025, around 50 of them issued a pre-action protocol letter to the NMC, alleging that their hearings were being “deliberately” delayed.
They also urged the NMC to collaborate with the Home Office to allow them to remain in the UK while their appeals were under review. Despite these requests, the Home Office has now taken steps to enforce their departure.
