From our Bureau of Twenty-First Century Neoslavery with some assistance from our Bureau of Praiseworthy Quixotic Gestures
Incredible, but true. Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn) is about to introduce a resolution in the US House of Representatives “to condemn the regime’s human trafficking of medical personnel around the world and hold the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) accountable for using millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to further this human trafficking operation.”
Even more astounding, this resolution has bipartisan support. Will it stop the human trafficking? No. But it is a noble gesture.
From The Hill
A bipartisan House group is introducing a resolution Thursday calling on the federal government to pull U.S. visas granted to third-country officials who have contracted the services of Cuban medical brigades.
The resolution, led by House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), follows the State Department’s June Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, in which the United States formally accused Cuba of profiting from forced labor through its international medical assistance program.
“Cuba has been a cautionary tale against communism for over seventy years. From state sponsorship of terrorism to gross human rights violations, the Castro and Díaz-Canel regimes represent everything the United States should stand against,” Green told The Hill, referring to former Cuban President Fidel Castro and the nation’s current president, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“Our resolution is a call on Congress to condemn the regime’s human trafficking of medical personnel around the world and hold the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) accountable for using millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to further this human trafficking operation.”
Cuba’s medical brigade program has garnered severe criticism from U.S. officials and a slew of human rights organizations, but officials and medical professionals in some beneficiary countries have praised it.
On paper, the brigade program is Cuba’s top foreign aid asset — the island nation exports medical services at cheap rates to places otherwise underserved or entirely lacking medical services, drawing on the island’s comparatively advanced medical system.
“Cuba’s commitment with international medical cooperation is firm and immovable, so long as the sovereign governments of the countries who benefit continue to claim that help,” said Cuban Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío.
But what Cuba and some receptor countries call aid, U.S. officials call exploitation, and some medical professionals who have defected from the brigades say they were paid a tiny fraction of the amount charged by Cuba to their hosts.
“The Cuban regime’s aim isn’t altruism, but profit. Cuban doctors receive only a small fraction of their earnings, and only when they return to Cuba. It’s time to give Cuban healthcare workers the dignity and respect they deserve. One way we can do this is by revoking visa authorities for foreign organization officials who participate in Cuba’s human trafficking of medical personnel. This resolution calls on President Joe Biden to do just that,” said Green.
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