Cuban Doctors Said to Be in 'Medical Slavery'

Cuban Doctors Said to Be in 'Medical Slavery'
Wednesday, 12 Nov 2014 02:46 PM
By Andrea Billups

Cuba makes nearly $8 million annually on the labor of its doctors, who
earn funds from the World Health Organization and other nations for
their work providing medical care abroad but are in turn paid a state
salary of about $64 a month, Breitbart reports.

While Cuba's export of its health teams has earned praise, Breitbart
calls the practice "medical slavery." It cites the writing of Cuban
political observer Mary Anastasia O'Grady, who in a column for
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The Wall Street Journal noted that Cuban doctors have been forced to
migrate to Sierra Leone and Guinea to work, which she described as a
type of human trafficking. If they refuse, their families are threatened
as their precious state jobs are cut off and their children are denied
admission to the nation's few state-run universities, she alleges.

Grady also noted that about 3,100 Cubans have sought refuge in the U.S.
over the last two years using a special travel visa set aside for doctors.

Breitbart noted the praise Cuban medical workers had received for their
work abroad by several U.S. media outlets, which have lauded Cuba's
response to such world crises as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa —
even as many aid workers sent abroad were told they could not return
home if they contracted the disease.
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The New York Times, in a staff editorial, described Cuba's Ebola
response as "impressive."

"Cuba has a long tradition of dispatching doctors and nurses to disaster
areas abroad," wrote the Times, urging the Obama administration to
coordinate its response with the island nation and to offer medical care
to those who might become infected.

The Times, however, did not mention the compensation inequity and
government power that forces Cuba's medical teams to hire out for paid
work in places like Haiti and other global hotspots where they put their
lives at risk.

Despite the government's abuse, the doctors doing heroic work should be
praised, Breitbart noted.

"Even if under the threat of force, the work that Cuban doctors
themselves may undertake on these internationalist missions is
noteworthy, particularly when so few in the affected nations are willing
to do it," noted Breitbart's Frances Martel in a story published Wednesday.

Source: Cuban Doctors Said to Be in 'Medical Slavery' -
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Cuban-doctors-medical-slavery-Sierra-Leone-health-workers/2014/11/12/id/606961/