The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it is expanding the current visa restriction imposed against those who benefit from the “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad, such as those involved in medical missions.
The State Department said in a statement that this expanded policy applies to current or former executive branch workers and other individuals, such as foreign government officials, who are believed to be responsible for or involved in such a labor “exploitation” program, particularly in Cuba’s medical missions abroad.
The U.S. government also targeted the immediate family of such individuals.
The statement detailed that the State Department has already taken steps to restrict visas for a number of individuals, including some Venezuelans, under this expanded policy.
“Cuba continues to benefit from the forced labor of its workers and the regime’s abusive and coercive labor practices are well documented,” that release said.
The U.S. criticized that “Cuba’s labor export programs, which include medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime and, in the case of medical missions abroad, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country.”
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“The United States is committed to countering forced labor practices worldwide. To do so, we must promote accountability not only for Cuban officials responsible for these policies but also for those complicit in the exploitation and forced labor of Cuban workers,” concluded Washington.
The State Department currently considers the missions of Cuban doctors abroad to be “an indisputable case of forced labor”. For this reason, it maintains Cuba on its “blacklist” of countries that do not comply with the minimum standards for combating human trafficking.
Rechaza EEUU visar pasaportes para actividades gestionadas por el Gobierno cubano
The Cuban government considers “totally legitimate” the medical collaboration program that the island maintains in several countries and believes that Washington “commits a crime when it tries to deny or hinder it with political motives”.
Thousands of Cuban professionals -most of them doctors- have participated during the last decades in missions in hundreds of countries. According to some estimates, they have become one of the country’s main sources of foreign exchange.
