(Jamaica Gleaner) The Jamaican Government is being urged to seek a waiver to shield itself from the United State’s (US) recent visa restrictions policy targeting officials from countries that engage Cuban healthcare workers.
“Jamaica has to exercise its diplomatic efforts to allow for granting of waivers,” declared Curtis Ward, former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations, with special responsibility for security council affairs.
Ward noted that efforts should also be made by CARICOM to approach this policy as a unified group.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an expansion of the US Cuba visa-restriction policy to include foreign government officials and their families whose countries are involved in Cuba’s overseas medical mission programme.
Rubio, who is Cuban American, described Cuba’s overseas medical missions as an oppressive programme that enriches Cuba’s government and deprives ordinary Cubans of optimum healthcare.
“The United States is committed to countering forced labour practices around the globe. To do so, we must promote accountability not just for Cuban officials responsible for these policies, but also those complicit in the exploitation and forced labour of Cuban workers,” he said.
However, Ward dismissed Rubio’s classification of the programme as forced labour, contending that what the Cuban government engages in is a form of bonding.
“We know that Cubans will leave wherever they are stationed and immediately head to the US if they had their passports with them and if they had their professional certification to allow them to move into jobs and so on. It’s like bonding these people to return to Cuba,” he said.
Jamaica is one of about 50 countries that benefit from Cuba’s medical missions, a partnership that started in the 1970s under Michael Manley’s People’s National Party (PNP) administration. The agreement was suspended in the 1980s under the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Edward Seaga.
However, over the years, fences were mended and the Cuban medical missions returned to Jamaica under the tenures of both JLP and PNP administrations.
In May 2023, it was estimated that more than 300 Cuban medical personnel were working in Jamaica. This followed the arrival of 250 Cuban medical staff in 2021, 140 in 2020, and 20 in 2016. Typically, these medical professionals work in Jamaica for a set period before returning to Cuba.
“Loss of that would be significant on the health sector of Jamaica and a case can be made for it to be waived,” Ward contended.
Jamaica’s nurse-to-population ratio is 1.7 to 1,000, compared to the global average of 4.9 to 1,000.
Meanwhile, there is a doctor ratio of 0.7 per 1,000 population, which includes dentist. The global average is approximately 2.5 to 1,000 population.
While stating that these sanctions are coercive in nature, Ward said Jamaica has a better chance of receiving a waiver from the US if has something to offer to the US in return.
“This is a very transactional administration, President [Donald] Trump is transactional in foreign policy … but it’s a very serious thing because if Jamaica doesn’t have anything to give to the United States or if Jamaica fails to agree with a US position whether at the UN (United Nations) or OAS (Organization of American States) or any other international forum, then the US could use this as a coercive tool to get Jamaica’s compliance,” he said.
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