The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FHRC) extends a warm congratulation to the Ministry of Public Health of Brazil for the bill it recently submitted to the Brazilian Congress, seeking to legalize for good the exile status of thousands of Cuban doctors who, last November, made the decision to stay in that country, shortly after the Cuban government abruptly decided that they had to abandon their patients and return immediately to the island.
If enacted, this legislation will allow the Cuban aid workers to undertake ─now as fully free human beings ─ the new projects of life they have long dreamed of.
FHRC reminds the Cuban government, and demands from it:
- Its obligation to hand over to these doctors all the diplomas, grade certificates and any other professional and personal documentation they have been denied thus far, with the clear intention of hindering their settlement in Brazil.
- That these professionals are entitled to be fully reimbursed for the actual salaries they earned while working in Brazil, of which they were usually paid a meager fraction while the Cuban Government arbitrarily expropriated more than 80%.
- To respect Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – of which Cuba was an original signatory – and end the restrictions on freedom of movement it has imposed to these doctors and their families by denying them the right of entering and leaving at will their country of birth.
FOUNDATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA
March 29th, 2019