About us – Cuban Doctors Human Rights

 

Cuban Doctors Human Rights is a movement organized by Cuban Doctors who were forced to move out of Cuba due to the inhumane treatment that we have received as part of Cuba’s medical missions around the world.

 

Our mission is to shed light on what is happening to our doctors in the Henry Reeve Brigade, which is Cuba’s International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disasters and Serious Epidemics. Over the years, this Brigade, run by the Cuban government, violates the rights of Cuban doctors by involuntarily forcing them to work in other countries for years – an act of human and labor trafficking. In fact, the Government of Cuba forces its doctors to participate in a program where it charges countries for medical care and then pockets most of the earnings.

 

The majority of western countries have pointed towards this violation of human rights and have demanded Cuba to stop the inhumane treatment of its doctors (among other human rights violations against its citizens).

 

 

Our Recommendation

 

We recommend modeling the program after the Cuban Doctors’ medical mission in Brazil; Once the Brazilian government realized the human rights violations against Cuban Doctors, Brazil decided to terminate its contract with Cuba and establish cooperation directly with doctors. It amended its laws to grant amnesty to Cuban doctors, a path to medical examination and certificaiton in Brazil, and jobs in their respective medical fields within Brazil. This way, the salaries would be paid directly to the doctors, instead of the Cuban government.

Here are the Facts

  • Since the Cold War era, Cuba has used “overseas medical missions” to exploit its citizens to generate foreign currency and hard assets through forced labor. Cuba continues to aggressively promote these international medical programs at the expense of the doctors.
  • Doctors in Cuba’s medical labor program constitute Cuba’s #1 export to foreign markets, and its top source of annual revenue.
  • Exporting health care professionals to foreign governments generates around $6.5B annually, making it a bigger source of revenue than the island’s tourism industry.
  • The money generated from the Medical Missions constitutes over 50% of Cuba’s revenue in hard currency.
  • The doctors are currently exported more than 50,000 professionals to over 67 countries worldwide via international agreements between nation states. (Full list below)
  • The largest and most expensive medical mission Cuba has ever participated in is an ongoing program in Venezuela, with over 30,000 Cuban doctors still working there, despite recent upheaval.
  • Cuban doctors who served in Brazil, who defected and came to the United States under the Cuban Medical Professionals Parole Program have filed a class action lawsuit against PAHO, alleging PAHO violated the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act and Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in Federal Court in Miami.