ROME, Italy.- “Cubans residing in Italy cannot accept the agreement that was signed between the government of the Calabria Region and the communist regime of Cuba,” reported Sadiel González, president of the ODV Democracy and Freedom association; that together with the groups ODV VII Diciembre and Movimiento Las Guerreras he sent a letter of complaint to more than 50 offices of the Italian public administration, including the unions that protect the rights of workers and the “Guardia di Finanza”. The latter is a special police force that is part of the Italian Armed Forces and performs both judicial police and financial fraud control tasks.
The News of the arrival of Cuban doctors in southern Italy was given by the Governor of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, through his facebook page on August 17: “For a few months, and this is good news, I have made an agreement with the Cuban government, rather with the state company of the Cuban government, the same one that gave doctors to Lombardy, Piedmont, in the acute phase of COVID. They developed extraordinary work with those regions. The same state company of the Cuban government that supplies thousands of doctors to many countries in the world with great requirements, in terms of quality, experience, because the Cuban medical school is one of the best known.”
The official specified that the Cuban government will send 497 doctors progressively. “We will start in September with a few dozen doctors that we will integrate into our health system,” he informed.
At first, free Cubans residing in Italy could not believe the news. “We are speechless, because we could not believe how in a free, democratic country, with laws and a strong Constitution, which gives rights to its citizens, like Italy, the governor of Calabria would have made this pact with the Cuban Embassy in Rome”, expressed Sadiel González.
But the surprise did not stop them and they immediately outlined a coordinated action strategy, which includes the formal denunciation of the illegality of the agreement through certified mail, called “Pec”, which in Italy has legal validity. The objective is “to warn the Italian government that this contract violates all the laws that protect Italian labor rights, violates the Italian Constitution, violates European treaties and conventions and that is why we will go to all the necessary venues to challenge that contract”, Consequently, Italy “cannot accept the system of modern slavery and human trafficking” in Cuba.
González also clarified that Cubans in Italy are not against Cuban doctors, but rather require the Italian authorities that the labor guarantees of European laws are also applied to Cuban workers. “What does it mean? That the national collective contract that corresponds directly to doctors be applied, obviously leaving out a Cuban organization that we know very well that responds to the communist dictatorship,” he indicated, and assured that with this action the dictatorship managed to unite Cuban residents even more. in Italy.
The terms of the agreement
The agreement signed between the “Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA” and the president of the Calabria region, Dr. Roberto Occhiuto, provides for the arrival of 497 Cuban doctors, with an initial shipment of 137 medical specialists in a period of execution of two years, renewable. Each doctor costs the region of Calabria the total sum of 4,700 euros, according to evidence in the documentHowever, Cuban doctors will only receive 1,200 euros in Italy, paid as “reimbursement of expenses”, even “tax-exempt” despite being a job carried out in Italian territory; and the remaining value of 3,500 euros will be paid directly to the coffers of the Cuban regime, by bank transfer to the name of “CSMC, SA” in an account in the “Banco Financiero Internacional”. A bank sanctioned by the United States, so the agreement even stipulates how to evade such sanctions, since article 4.8 establishes that “in no case will bank transfers be made in US dollars, nor will US banks located in the United States be used”.
And as if the payment of 2.3 million euros per year to the dictatorship for medical services were not enough (in case the entire staff of 497 specialists is sent), the region of Calabria also agreed to pay international transport costs. and national, guarantee accommodation, furniture and services (including appliances, kitchen utensils, linens, water, electricity, internet, gas, telephone, air conditioning and computers); insurance with civil liability coverage (necessary for the exercise of the profession), as well as all the administrative and logistical structures necessary for the work of the medical mission.
The text of the complaint
CubaNet had access to the text of the complaint that the Cubans residing in Italy sent through certified mail to the responsible public agencies, with the title “Important information on Cuban Doctors in Calabria and their condition of Modern Slavery.” Here is the full text:
We draw your attention to the medical collaboration agreement that is being carried out between the government of the Region of Calabria and the communist regime of Cuba for the public hiring of 500 Cuban doctors who would come to serve in that region of Italy.
Now it is known that the communist dictatorship in Cuba sends doctors on medical missions abroad with work and salary agreements that benefit only the regime and not the doctors.
The medical personnel of these missions lack adequate medical training and the most advanced knowledge in handling modern medical technology.
The heads of these missions are operators of the political police of the regime and they keep under absolute control the medical personnel who are prevented from going to these communist missions with their families, their passports are withdrawn and they are forced to send part or all of their salaries to bank accounts of the communist regime.
We denounce that these missions and the agreement carried out in Calabria have clear shades of illegality, clearly considered agreements of “modern slavery”.
“Considering that the 2020 Annual Report of the IACR indicates a series of complaints of abuses and human rights violations committed by the Cuban State against its medical personnel who provide services abroad under the guise of so-called medical missions; that the declaration of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (CUB 6/2019) on Cuban medical missions highlighted the precarious and inhumane working conditions of medical personnel and these accusations are supported by Human Rights Watch and 622 witnesses” Quote from the European Parliament Resolution 2021/2745 (RSP)
Considering that the Italian constitution in its article 4 declares: “The Republic recognizes the right to work of all citizens and promotes the conditions that make this right effective”. And in your art. 35 that “the Republic protects work in all its forms and applications”.
Considering that the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in its article 5 declares: “No one can be held in conditions of slavery or servitude”.
Your attention to this matter is required immediately.
Attached we put at your disposal the documents that prove the above.
We are at your disposal.
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