Fiji, Dec. 15 -- A major new study by the Australia Institute has warned that labour migration policies promoted by Australia and New Zealand are accelerating a health workforce crisis across the Pacific, undermining already fragile health systems and threatening long-term development.

The study, Addressing the Health Workforce Crisis in the Pacific, finds that while labour mobility schemes deliver short-term income gains for individual workers and families, they are also stripping Pacific Island countries of skilled health workers they cannot afford to lose.

The report aligns its findings with the Pacific Islands Forum's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, which prioritises sustainable economic development. It echoes a warnin...