Cuban medical staff return to Jamaica on individual contracts, bypassing Havana
Health Minister Chris Tufton says 157 Cuban professionals have been re-engaged after US pressure ended the government-to-government arrangement.
KINGSTON, Jamaica. Dozens of Cuban doctors, nurses and biomedical engineers have returned to Jamaica on individual contracts rather than through arrangements made by the Cuban government, officials said this week.
The change follows sustained pressure from the Trump administration on Caribbean governments to stop paying the Cuban government for medical brigades. Workers had been receiving only about 20 per cent of their monthly salary packages from Havana.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the decades-old payment system as a form of human trafficking and urged governments to negotiate individual contracts with workers, as Jamaica and some other regional states have done. He has also called for an end to the programme altogether.
157 re-engaged
Health Minister Chris Tufton told reporters that authorities had re-engaged 157 medical personnel, in addition to more than 40 who chose to remain when the old arrangement was terminated earlier this year. The previous brigade had 278 members.
"So, we are close to where we were, and they have been appropriately deployed," he said. "I want to thank those who have chosen that option because the system needs them."
Tufton said every Cuban who had previously worked in the health system had been offered an individual contract, and those who have not yet returned would be welcome.
"We'd be willing to re-engage them based on their own interests, but on the basis of individual contracts," he said. "Some have expressed an interest in doing so, even though they have returned to Cuba."
Recruitment from Africa
The minister said efforts to recruit medical personnel from Ghana and Nigeria will continue as part of a plan to improve the sector by 2030. He expects up to 400 Ghanaian personnel could arrive in the coming months.
"In the case of Nigeria, the new agreement builds on the health cooperation already underway," he said, noting that four specialised nursing educators had previously come under the Nigerian technical aid corps programme.
The Trump administration's campaign to change the payment system has led to major changes in countries including The Bahamas, Guyana and Jamaica.
