Guyana asks US to provide evidence on Cuban medical workers system here

Last Updated on Saturday, 15 March 2025, 20:49 by Writer

President Irfaan Ali on Saturday said Guyana has asked the United States (US) to provide proof that Cuban workers were being exploited in Guyana, amid the Trump administration’s decision to cancel the visas of foreign government workers and their immediate family members if Cubans continue to be put into forced labour.

“We also said to the US if there is any particular information or any specific issue that they wish for us to address, we are more than willing to work with them because, as you know, the US is a very important partner also for Guyana and we work closely together on many issues,” he told reporters.

The US has given Guyana its unflinching support for its sovereignty and territorial integrity in line with the 1899 award of the land boundary with Venezuela. The largest foreign investor in Guyana is the American supermajor, ExxonMobil. The two countries also work closely in the fight against narco-trafficking.

The President also said that Guyana told the US that the labour rights of Cuban, Indian and African healthcare workers in Guyana were not being violated. “They fall under the same labour laws, the local labour laws and international labour laws to ensure that their contracts and their terms of employment are in line with international labour laws, local labour laws and standards.”

He said Guyana has shared with the US the benefits that the Cuban healthcare workers receive.

The US State Department’s 2024 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report on Guyana states that the Guyana government previously reported most Cuban workers in the country were medical doctors who were paid by the Cuban government while the Guyanese government provided housing and airfare. “Cuban government-affiliated medical professionals working in Guyana may have been forced to work by the Cuban government,” the report states.

The President did not say definitively whether Guyana would continue to hire Cuban healthcare workers after the existing contract expires. “I haven’t seen the contract to see when that’s up but what I can say is that whoever is working here now from the Cuban medical workers, that they fall under our local laws and international laws,” he said.

The leaders of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago are on record as saying that they were prepared to lose their American visas rather than give up the employment of Cuban Medical Brigade workers in their countries. Similar sentiments were echoed by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Jamaica.

In its 2024 TIP Report on Cuba, the US State Department states that Cuban authorities employ workers through contracts with foreign governments and, in some countries, international organizations serve as intermediaries or provide funds for their work. However, the US says the Cuban government confiscates between 75 and 95 percent of each worker’s salary, leaving government-affiliated workers with compensation that in many places is an inadequate living wage. Officials retain a portion of each worker’s salary in Cuban bank accounts, and funds can only be paid to the workers when the mission has been successfully completed and the workers have returned to Cuba.