The Cuban government is ready to send more doctors to Qatar. The toilets will be used in one of the hospitals that will provide care to the fans during the celebration of the Soccer World Cup. According to the Sancti Spíritus health authorities, the Arab country “has requested Cuban personnel to work in a hospital that is to be opened” for the event, which begins on November 20. The choice of Qatar as the venue has been widely criticized for violations of the rights of women, the LGBTI collective or workers, all of them causes theoretically defended by the Cuban regime.
Without specifying the number of professionals sent on official missions to Qatar or how many new ones will be incorporated, Leonardo Ríos Cabrera, head of the Sancti Spíritus Provincial Department of Medical Collaboration, told the newspaper Escambray that the new order for toilets by the oil emirate is possible “thanks to the prestige achieved by Cuban doctors in that nation.”
This Sunday, November 20, the most controversial Cup in recent decades begins, described by human rights organizations as “the World Cup of shame”, not only because of the situation of the LGTBI population under Islamic norms, but also because of the abuses towards the migrants who initially worked in almost slave-like conditions in the new stadiums and saw their situation improve thanks to an international campaign to denounce it.
Migrants in Qatar work under a sponsorship system that basically consists of employers holding workers’ passports and deciding their legal status.
Migrants in Qatar work under the sponsorship system known as kafala, which basically consists of employers retaining workers’ passports and deciding their legal status.
Cuba already has a history of sending health professionals to Qatar. The last publicly known group was made up of 156 toilets from the Henry Reeve contingentwho left in 2021 to help the emirate deal with the covid-19 pandemic.
In July 2020, it became known through an extensive report published in the Spanish newspaper The world that in recent years some 40 Cuban health workers had escaped from official missions. The article collected the testimony of three professionals who worked at the facilities of the Cuban Hospital in Dukhan, who described their escape as “worthy of a Cold War spy film.”
This hospital is located about 80 kilometers east of Doha and was inaugurated in 2012 as a “jewel of the Cuban international medical missions.” According to information published by GuardianQatar pays Havana between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars for each doctor hired.
Sending doctors is one of the main strategies of the Cuban government to maintain its presence with its allied countries and, above all, the main source of income for the regime.
Ríos Cabrera told Escambray that more than 730 professionals from the province of Sancti Spíritus provide their services in 37 countries, including Qatar, Angola, Mexico and Venezuela. Most of the health workers are doctors, about 266, as well as 374 general graduates, 63 technicians, 19 dentists and nine service workers.
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