Page 11 - Aruba Today
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 3 December 2015
Cuba imposes travel permit for doctors to limit brain drain
M. WEISSENSTEIN Doctors parade in the May Day march in Havana, Cuba. The Cuban government announced countries as their primary
A. RODRIGUEZ reasons for emigrating.
Associated Press on the front page of state media this week that doctors in specialties that have been drained The Cuban government
HAVANA (AP) — The Cu- places the blame on the
ban government an- by large-scale emigration in recent years will now be required to get permission from Health U.S. policy of granting au-
nounced this week that tomatic legal residency to
it is re-imposing a hated Ministry officials in order to leave the country. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) Cuban immigrants, with
travel permit requirement special fast-track benefits
on many doctors, requir- Cuba untouched. or commodities for each reached its highest levels for doctors who abandon
ing them to get permission The Cuban government doctor it sends overseas. in at least two decades this government medical mis-
to leave the country in an cites free, universal health Official statistics show that year. Cuba complained sions overseas. The govern-
attempt to counter a brain care system as one of the 500,000 of the country’s 5 that the U.S. said it had no ment has raised medical
drain that it blames on the crowning achievements million workers are health plans to change Cold War- salaries in recent years,
United States. of its socialist revolution. professionals. era policies that give au- but few doctors earn more
It is the first major retreat Medical missions abroad The new policy was an- tomatic legal residency to than $80 a month, a frac-
in Cuba’s policy of allow- are one of the most im- nounced hours after a Cuban immigrants. tion of what they would
ing unrestricted travel for portant sources of foreign meeting Monday be- Like Herrera, many Cu- earn in medicine in other
its citizens, put in place in exchange for the Cuban tween U.S. and Cuban ban doctors cite low pay, countries, or even as driv-
2013 as President Raul Cas- government, which re- negotiators in Washington poor working conditions ers or waiters in Cuba’s
tro allowed new freedoms ceives tens of thousands to address a crisis in Cu- and the possibility of well- booming tourist economy.
as part of a broad set of of dollars a year in cash ban migration, which has compensated jobs in other “The migration of Cuban
social and economic re- health professionals is a
forms. The announcement concern for the coun-
set off waves of anger and try,” the government an-
worry among Cuban doc- nouncement read, blam-
tors and nurses, members ing U.S. laws that aid Cu-
of one of the country’s ban medical emigration
most respected and eco- for having “the perverse
nomically important pro- objective of pushing Cu-
fessions. By midday, many ban health professionals
Cuban doctors were trying to abandon their missions
to figure out whether quit- in other countries.” Inside
ting their jobs would free Cuba, many doctors and
them of the travel limit. nurses complain that their
“Instead of resolving the profession has been dev-
real problems of Cuban astated by waves of de-
doctors, which is that partures, with vital special-
salaries are low and we ists now absent in many
are working with limited clinics and hospitals.q
resources, this measure
shows that there’s no re- USVI signs $800M deal to sell shuttered refinery
spect for the rights of citi-
zens in Cuba,” said Dr. Edu- CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. HOVENSA oil storage fa- The refinery closed in early a lawsuit against U.S. oil
ardo Herrera, a surgeon at Virgin Islands (AP) — The cility in St. Croix would be 2012 after years of weak company Hess Corp. in
Calixto Garcia Hospital in U.S. Virgin Islands has expanded and a $6 mil- demand and high oper- September for more than
Havana’s Vedado neigh- signed an $800 million deal lion asphalt plant would be ating costs, delivering an $1 million, accusing the
borhood. to sell what was once the built. He said the deal re- economic blow to the firm of abandoning the
The government an- world’s largest oil refinery quires that 80 percent of all U.S. territory. Mapp said if refinery it had promised to
nounced on the front page to a Boston-based equity workers be Virgin Islanders. the deal is approved, the run through 2022. The Hess
of state media that health firm. The deal also provides $30 government would not be subsidiary that owns the
professionals in specialties The government an- million to continue clean- forced to borrow money refinery later announced
that have been drained nounced Tuesday that it up of the site and awards for at least three years that it would file for Chap-
by large-scale emigration would receive a $220 mil- the government 330 acres since it would receive a ter 11 bankruptcy, which
in recent years will now be lion upfront payment from (134 hectares) of HOVEN- minimum of $7 million a would allow it to sell the re-
required to get permission ArcLight Capital Partners’ SA land to build 130 homes year from Limetree. finery as a storage facility,
from Health Ministry offi- Limetree Bay Holdings as and a vocational school. “These dollars will help bal- a move the government
cials in order to leave the part of the 25-year deal Legislators are scheduled ance the budget while we tried to prevent. Mapp said
country. The measure po- that is expected to cre- to meet Dec. 17 to debate rebuild our economy,” he the government has since
tentially affects one-tenth ate hundreds of jobs. Gov. the deal, which requires said. reached a settlement with
of the country’s work force, Kenneth Mapp said the their approval. The government had filed HOVENSA.q
leaving very few families in
