Caribbean countries move to change payment system to Cuban medics

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With the Trump administration stepping up pressure on Caribbean countries to ditch or to drastically amend the hiring of Cuban medical professionals in the region, several governments are moving to comply with the edict, fearing visa restrictions and other key sanctions.

For example, Antigua, whose citizens have been barred from applying for tourist visas from this month, has taken steps to hire more than 100 nurses from Ghana. Local opposition parties say the Ghanaians, who can number up to several hundred, will eventually replace the Cubans as authorities move to appease Washington and avoid other punishing sanctions that could hurt the tourism dependent federation with Barbuda.

The first batch of the nurses was due to arrive in the country late Monday. Government spokesman Maurice Merchant says that no formal decision has been made on the future of the Cuban medical brigade but he did appear to hint that “as with everything, there is a period of transition.”

President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been comparing the hiring of the Cubans and the current monthly payments system as a form of human trafficking and modern day slave labor as the professionals take home only about 15% of their monthly earnings while the Cuban government takes the remainder as management fees.

So, in recent weeks, authorities in The Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua have signaled plans to tweak the payments system to comply with U.S. demands.

Bahamian Health Minister Michael Darville told reporters in the past week that talks with Washington are at an advanced stage and are continuing.

“We’re going to finalize the contracts where we’re going into direct negotiation with the worker itself, that we have been discussing with the U.S. government. Those who sign, we will continue, for those who do not sign, we will give them time to wrap up their affairs and return back to Cuba. Those discussions are moving and progressing extremely well. Very soon I will go into the direct contract with the Cuban workers that are in the country but let me make it very clear that in the country there’s only three Cuban doctors and three Cuban nurses,” he said.

In the wider Caribbean, there are more than 2000 such professionals in countries stretched across the 15-nation bloc. Leaders like Andrew Holness of Jamaica, Philip Davis of The Bahamas, and Gaston Browne of Antigua have all praised the Cubans as being part of the backbone of national health care systems with hirings dating back to the mid-70s.

To prepare for integration into the national healthcare system, Antiguan government teams had traveled to Ghana to recruit and vet the applicants even as the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) says there is little doubt the Cubans are being phased out to please the U.S..

Party Chairwoman Giselle Isaac-Arrindell complains that authorities have shared little with the populace until quite recently, and legislators are angry.

“To say nothing to the very people whom these new medics (the Ghanians) will be treating and who will be paying their salaries is not only disrespectful but suspicious. We guess that the least important people, that is, the taxpayers, were not important enough to be told in advance,” she said. She argued that no mention was made of the cabinet’s plans during the annual throne speech, the budget presentation, or during the budget debate or by the minister of health or the minister of foreign affairs, she said.

And through its mission in Barbados, Washington this week reiterated its opposition to the Cuban program. “Renting out Cuban medical professionals at exorbitant prices and keeping the profit for regime elites is not a humanitarian gift. It is forced labor. It treats doctors as commodities rather than human beings and professionals. The corrupt Cuban regime is profiting off the forced labor of medical personnel,” the mission said in a social media post.

“The U.S. calls for an end to the Cuban regime’s coercive and exploitative labor export scheme,” the statement said. This program is not a gift from Cuba to the people of the Caribbean; it is an overpriced arrangement funded by local taxpayers. Money is often paid directly to the corrupt Cuban regime, which takes 80-95% of the doctors’ salaries. This is a modern-day forced labor scheme. It comes at a high cost to participating countries, not only financially, but also in terms of basic human dignity and morality,” it stated.