The organization believes that paying the doctors directly into their accounts does not solve anything, since the doctors will continue to deliver part of their salaries to the regime.
14ymedio, Madrid, May 13, 2025 — Archivo Cuba, author of a report which determined that the government of the Bahamas paid up to $5,000 and $12,000 to the Cuban regime for each doctor sent to the archipelago on an international mission, has sent a statement expressing its position on the statements made by Prime Minister Philip Davis. The head of the Bahamian Executive said he would pay the health workers directly into their own accounts, which, according to the organization, “does not end the human trafficking and forced labor.”
Cuba Archive argues that the idea, expressed by Davis in The Nassau Guardian, “does not represent a real change of policy and will not stop exploitation” as it is documented that, “even when Cuban workers who are exported are paid ’directly’, they are still obliged to send a large part of their income to the Cuban government”.
The organization urges the Bahamas to hire workers directly, as well as nationals and foreigners, in addition to ceasing the intermediation of the Cuban government “or any of its entities or representatives.”
“Even when the exported Cuban workers are paid ‘directly’, they are still obliged to send a large part of their income to the Cuban government.”
On May 6, Philip Davis held a meeting with US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in which they discussed several issues that are of concern to Washington, including Cuban medical missions. “As you know, the issue of how Cuban doctors are compensated is something for which the Secretary of State has shown concern and raised a red flag,” said Bahamas press secretary Keishla Adderley.
She was referring to the measure announced in February of this year by the US expressing its intention to restrict visas to officials from foreign countries involved in what it called “labor exploitation” of Cuban workers abroad, including health workers.
At last week’s meeting, Davis told the local press that he had explained the situation to US officials and denied that Cuban doctors were in a situation of labor exploitation. “We were able to communicate to them, and I think they were satisfied that we are not involved in forced labor as far as we know,” he said.
“If forced labor is occurring in our country with the Cubans, we have no record of it,” he added, while indicating that an exhaustive analysis was being carried out to determine whether there was any “element” of this type present in the employment relationship. “If we discover something like this, it will be corrected,” he said.
Davis argued that the payment method, through the Cuban government, is not extraordinary. The Prime Minister resorted to recalling how the US paid part of the wages of Bahamian seasonal workers to the UK before the islands became independent. “That is not an unknown concept or construct. But it is now considered an ingredient for forced labor. So, we will address that. To anyone we hire, we will say: ’Look, we’ll pay directly into your account’.”
Cuba Archive believes that this eventual solution does not imply any change in what is understood more as a message to the US State Department.
“Newly received information indicates that a Cuban official in Nassau, Amaury Gomez (who is probably listed as a “health worker”), has been collecting these remittances in cash. Cuban teachers have been instructed to start sending money by authorizing a fictitious online purchase linked to a Royal Bank of Canada subsidiary, RBC Dominion Securities, at 3250 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Those who resist face deportation and other sanctions,” argues the organization, which counts 40 current members of the Cuban medical brigade and 130 Cuban teachers.
In the report, Cuba Archive reviews the figures of the agreements between the Bahamas and Cuba, estimated at $15.7 million annually by health workers and educators
In the report, Cuba Archive reviews the figures of the agreements between the Bahamas and Cuba, estimated at $15.7 million per year for health care and educators, plus travel, insurance, training and other items that it estimates at $17 million more annually.
According to the organization’s figures, “specialist medical advisers” are paid $12,000 a month and “biomedical engineers” $5,000, 92 per cent of which goes to the Cuban Government. In addition, Archivo Cuba states that during the pandemic, 50 Cuban nurses came to Nassau who worked without permission for half a year, of which only 10 treated patients with covid-19 for $750 per month, while the nurses that the country had hired directly were pocketing between $4,000 and $6,000.
For their part, Cuban teachers must pay 50% of their salary to the regime and, as with the health workers, must comply with strict rules, including avoiding relations with the local population and demonstrating against the embargo on the last Sunday of each month.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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