The “hell” of Cuban doctors abroad, unmasked

Not without controversy, the European Parliament this week underlined the complex situation of Cuban doctors, who are traveling on a mission abroad, in a dollar business tour to Cuba.

The Parliament approved this June 10 by majority, a historic resolution condemning human rights violations in Cuba. The island wasted no time in rejecting the resolution, calling it “False and interfering” and stressing that this “monstrosity” was promoted by a group of MEPs aligned with Washington.

It is true that the European resolution opened the floodgates to a series of criticisms for and against the regime. The human rights debate in Cuba is not new. And the passions are always on and polarized.

This time, however, the resolution shed light on the situation of the missions of Cuban doctors sent abroad by the Communist regime.

These missions, which serve as propaganda for the Cuban government, are – according to their detractors – a sample of the control that Cuba exercises over its population, especially when you are abroad.

Beyond a work of international cooperation, the missions of Cuban doctors in the world they are a source of income. In 2018, Havana would have raised $ 6.3 billion through the exploitation of their doctors. It was their main source of foreign exchange. In 2019, medical services accounted for 46% of Cuban exports and 6% of the island’s GDP.

But the doctors barely get along a small slice to which they would not have access until they returned to their country. Critics of the Cuban regime denounce that trained Cuban doctors are plagued by a system similar to “human trafficking, slavery.” And they applaud the European Parliament’s resolution that no country complicity of the system.

The Cuban response

“We reiterate our energetic rejection of this monster promoted by the most extremist representatives of the Spanish political groups Partido Popular and Vox, which have no moral authority to judge Cuba, ”the National Assembly’s Committee on International Relations said in a statement released on its website Thursday .

In the document, approved by 386 votes in favor and 236 against, with 59 abstentions, the deputies denounce “the existence of political prisoners, the persistent and permanent political persecutions, the acts of harassment and the arbitrary arrests of dissidents” in Cuba.

The “slavery” of doctors

In its resolution, Parliament adhere to various reports various human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the IACHR who denounce the “slavery” of Cuban doctors.

These organizations denounce that Cuba “imposes on all civilian employees abroad who work for the State or for State enterprises, including medical personnel, unjustified duties and obligations that violate human dignity and the most basic and fundamental human rights. “

They also point out that the Cuban Penal Code punishable by eight years in prison to all officials who do not complete medical missions or who they decide not to return to Cuba.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) considered these medical missions to be a modern form of slavery.

The communication of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Cuban medical missions also highlighted the working conditions precarious and inhuman medical personnel, accusations supported by Human Rights Watch and 622 testimonies.

Based on these data, the European Parliament condemned “the systemic violations of human and labor rights committed by the Cuban state. against your nursing staff sent to provide services abroad as part of medical missions, which violate fundamental ILO conventions ratified by Cuba. “

Cuba sends to thousands of workers health in various countries. In 2018, it had more than 95,000 doctors, for an island of barely 11 million inhabitants. In the German Land of Baden-Württemberg, there are 51,000 doctors for the same number of people.

The image of the medical superpower

“Building the image of a medical superpower has always been one of the regime’s priorities,” he explains. Antonio Guedès, former president and board member of the Cuban Liberal Union in exile, in statements to DW.

At the end of 2018, Cuban medical missions abroad resulted in the transfer of 28,000 doctors and health workers to 67 states, before Cuban doctors were expelled from countries like Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador and Ecuador. when their respective governments turned to the right, the extreme right, as in the case of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

As he writes Samuel Farber, a sociologist from the University of California at Berkeley, born in Cuba, Cuban doctors only receive about 25% of what foreign governments pay Cuban authorities for their services (most host countries also provide accommodation free to Cubans, although of very variable quality).

Avoid dropouts

Farber argues that doctors abroad are subject to a series of government rules that limit their mobility and they try to avoid desertions.

For example, they have their remuneration, or part of it, deposited by the State in Cuba itself, and must leave their spouses and / or minor children on the island.

In addition, they have to hand over their passports to their hierarchical superiors upon their arrival in the foreign country where they will exercise their functions. Desertion carries severe penalties, such as being banned from traveling to Cuba for eight years, even if she continues to be a Cuban citizen.

As documented by @CubanDefenders, a group of legal activists for the legal defense of human rights based in Madrid, there are currently around 5 and 10 thousand Cuban medical relatives that they have been forcibly separated from their children and families, because they cannot oppose being destined.

Many have stopped seeing their families for 8 or 10 years.

However, not all doctors are against travel. According to Farber, there are Cuban doctors who are “more than willing to practice abroad under the patronage of their government”. In addition to the humanitarian feelings that may motivate them, says Saber, the very low 25% of the payment they receive for their services it’s much better than they would normally win in Cuba.

Hell

In an article published by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the painting is another.

In a note titled “The hell of the doctors of Castroism”, the newspaper explains that there is a foolproof handbook of repressive standards that accompanies Cuban doctors who travel abroad.

Staff are accountable to their superiors all your romantic relationships. It is also prohibited to maintain relations with persons who maintain “positions hostile or contrary to the Cuban revolution” or “whose conduct does not conform to the principles or values ​​of Cuban society”.

Living with unauthorized people also violates codes of conduct.

Considered a “regulated population”, doctors can only travel abroad with special permits. During the last recruitments to fight against the Covid, the doctors confessed to the organization Prisoners Defenders having accepted the post because they feared reprisals or they did it to get food or flee the country.

According to research by HRW and the United Nations, there are also “Excess hours worked”, vacation and salary limitations and threats.

The Cuban government denied the accusations and singled out human rights rapporteurs for “instigating bogus campaigns promoted by the US government”.

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