The Federal Court decided to authorize the rehiring of Cuban doctors who worked in the Mais Médicos program.
The decision was signed on Friday (27th) by Judge Carlos Augusto Pires Brandão, from the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1), headquartered in Brasília, and complied with the request for the reintegration of professionals made by the association that represents 1,700 Cuban exchange students who stayed in Brazil.
The entity argued that doctors who arrived in the country to work in the Mais Médicos program, created in 2013 by then-president Dilma Rousseff, did not have their contract renewed during the Doctors for Brazil program, created in the Jair Bolsonaro government.
According to the National Association of Medical Professionals Trained in Foreign Higher Education Institutions (Aspromed), the Cuban professionals selected in the 20th cycle of the program had a non-extendable two-year contract, while the public notice for the other exchange students provided for three years of work, which could be renewable.
When analyzing the arguments, the judge highlighted the importance of the program for serving the population living in needy municipalities and for assisting in the humanitarian crime involving the Yanomami indigenous people.
“The program makes it possible to implement public health actions to combat the health crisis that has taken hold in the region of the Yanomami indigenous people. There is a state of public health emergency declared, decreed through the Ministry of Health”, said the magistrate.
According to the judge, the decision also involves humanitarian issues for Cuban doctors who stayed in Brazil.
“The breach of legitimate expectation of these doctors is evident, who, for the most part, have already formed families on Brazilian soil. After legally perfect hiring of their services by the Union, which lasted over time, it seems plausible to imagine that the Cuban doctors represented here reprogrammed their lives, according to the expectations formed from these hirings, and it seems fair to recognize that they now intend to stay in Brazil”, he concluded.
At the end of 2018, the Cuban government determined the return of professionals after disagreeing with statements by then-president-elect Jair Bolsonaro regarding changes to the rules for doctors to remain in the program, such as carrying out the Revalida tests, an exam to assess knowledge about medicine, receiving a full salary and the option to bring family members to Brazil.
In the current government, the Ministry of Health is studying the return of the old program.
