Not only are doctors and health workers affected by the harsh labor regime of the so-called missions international, but thousands of other professionals such as teachers, sailors, architects, engineers and even artists. This was announced this Wednesday by Cuban Prisoners Defenders (CPD), Civil Rights Defenders and the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (Cadal) before several deputies of the European Parliament.
In a videoconference, the organizations presented the third extension of the denunciation of the abuses committed by the Cuban regime in the international sale of services, initially sent in 2019 to the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.
The report includes, as Liberal MEP Dita Charanzová, one of the event’s organizers, said, “the testimonies of Cuban professionals abroad who have been subjected to serious injustices, persecution, slavery, threats, violence, harassment, family separation.”
With this, they intend to demonstrate how a total of 1,111 professionals from different sectors were “used by the regime as propaganda to demonstrate the so-called solidarity with other countries”, when, pointed out the Czech MEP, “this does not reflect the reality of the Government’s intentions Cuban”. The initial complaint of 2019, with 110 testimonies, was extended by one year then until you reach 622.
The complaint was made this Wednesday by Cuban Prisoners Defenders, Civil Rights Defenders and the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America before several deputies of the European Parliament.
For Charanzová, “the governments that receive these services from Cuba must be firm and demand changes” and “say no to slavery and forced labor.”
The MEP also recalled that the European Union will soon present legislation on sustainable corporate governance and, in this context, they will request “to also consider the situation of Cuban workers in international missions.”
In addition, he insisted that the EU-Cuba Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, signed in 2016, “is not working”, for which he urged its suspension and the application of sanctions against Cuban officials within the legal framework of the Union for human rights violations. humans. The MEP also criticized the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who, in her opinion, “has not put any pressure on the (Cuban) regime to comply with the agreement.”
The missions of internationalization of the Cuban Government are programs to take professionals to work in other countries. Although the initiative is identified with the contingents of doctors that for decades have brought more than 400,000 professionals to 164 countries, musicians, sailors, engineers, athletes and teachers also participate, very notoriously, for example, in the case of Venezuela.
In a survey carried out by these three NGOs of 894 anonymous complainants, 75% stated that they did not go to the missions voluntarily and 13% alleged coercion. 87%, for their part, assured that economic factors influenced their decision and 66% confessed to wanting to escape from the situation due to the lack of alternatives on the Island.
The report also provides documentary evidence of the so-called eight-year law, which prohibits the entry into Cuba during that period of time to those professionals who leave their mission early or do not return when it ends.
The organizations have obtained, among other documents, a consular certificate that details the declaration of “deserter” and another that ratifies the prohibition of entry into their own country to a Cuban citizen.
There are two payment models for missionsexplains the report. In the first, the worker receives from Cuba, which gives him between 9% and 25% of what he receives from the host country. According to these NGOs, the Government of Cuba pays an average of 525 dollars to professionals, when it charges an average of more than 3,500 dollars for each one, with which it pockets 85% of the salary.
The organizations have obtained, among other documents, a consular certificate that details the declaration of “deserter” and another that ratifies the prohibition of entry into their own country to a Cuban citizen
In the second model, an employer company of the Cuban State who acts as an intermediary keeps a salary commission, normally between 75% and 90% of the base salary. The NGOs present documents in this regard, such as that of a sailor in the Italian-Swiss cruise company MSC, with a salary of 408 euros per month and from whom 326.40 euros were withheld.
This company, precisely, is also denounced in the report as one of the beneficiaries of the system. Thus, it would have employed thousands of Cuban sailors with an average monthly salary of 727 dollars per month (640 euros), between the part controlled by Cuba and an undeclared extra. This is a figure well below the minimum wages established in Europe, especially for jobs of 77 hours per week and without days off.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is also mentioned in the document, which kept 5% of the salaries of the 8,400 Cuban doctors who worked annually in Brazil for six years under the Mais Médicos program. In 2018 alone, this body obtained 128 million dollars through this mechanism.
The report also shows how the sales of professional services that the so-called internationalist missions of Cuba represent are the country’s largest source of foreign currency income, above remittances and tourism, since at least 2005.
Shortly after the publication of the report and without alluding to it, the Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, criticized this Wednesday to the United States for linking international missions to human trafficking. “The mendacious accusations of the US Secretary of State linking Cuba to human trafficking seek to tarnish the solidarity effort of Cuban medical cooperation, which saves lives and whose unquestionable merits are recognized by the international community,” the Foreign Minister tweeted. , one day after Blinken accused the governments of Cuba, China, North Korea and Russia of engage in human trafficking.
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