Havana/Miguel Díaz-Canel described this Tuesday as “manipulative” the report prepared by the United States that keeps the Island among the countries that do not meet the minimum standards for the fight against human trafficking.
The US report mainly points in the Cuban case to the so-called international missions of Havana, which for decades has sent thousands of professionals – mainly doctors – to dozens of countries.
“The empire has once again listed Cuba in its manipulative report on human trafficking. Outrageous maneuver of open war against Cuban medical collaboration. Enough of cynicism,” Díaz-Canel wrote on social networks.
“The empire has once again listed Cuba in its manipulative report on human trafficking. Outrageous maneuver of open war against Cuban medical collaboration. Enough of cynicism”
He added that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “is well aware of our policy of zero tolerance for this criminal practice.”
The United States considers that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are among the countries with the greatest existence of human trafficking since they do not meet the minimum standards for its elimination nor do they make significant efforts in this regard.
This is reflected in the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) published this Monday by the State Department, which divides countries according to their degrees of human trafficking and places those mentioned in the most serious level, which already They were a year earlier.
In this regard, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, also commented on social networks that “Cuba maintains a policy of zero tolerance against human trafficking.”
“The inclusion of our country in unilateral and arbitrary reports from the US Government continues, which only seek to maintain and justify its criminal policy of economic asphyxiation against the Cuban people,” indicated the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The report calls on Cuba to ensure that “government-sponsored labor export programs meet international labor standards, specifically that participants receive fair wages that are paid in full to bank accounts that workers can control.”
The Government considers the program “totally legitimate” and criticizes that Washington “commits a crime by attempting to deny or hinder it for political reasons.”
The State Department considers that the missions of Cuban doctors abroad are “an indisputable case of forced labor.” That is why it keeps Cuba on its “black list” of countries that do not meet the minimum standards to combat human trafficking.
The Cuban Government considers the medical collaboration program that the Island maintains in several countries “totally legitimate” and criticizes that Washington “commits a crime by attempting to deny or hinder it for political reasons.”
Thousands of Cuban professionals have participated in missions in hundreds of countries over the last decades. According to some estimates, they have become one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency.
