[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 136 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 136
Affirming that the Government of Cuba's foreign medical missions
constitute human trafficking.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 14, 2019
Mr. Sires (for himself, Ms. Shalala, Mr. Diaz-Balart, Mr. Rooney of
Florida, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Waltz, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and Ms.
Mucarsel-Powell) submitted the following resolution; which was referred
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Affirming that the Government of Cuba's foreign medical missions
constitute human trafficking.
Whereas, in 2015, the Government of Cuba maintained more than 50,000 Cuban
doctors and medical personnel in foreign medical missions in 67
countries under conditions that represent forced labor;
Whereas the Department of States' 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report noted
that Cuban authorities coerced some participants to remain in the
foreign medical missions, including by--
(1) ``withholding their passports [and] restricting their movement'';
(2) ``using `minders' to monitor participants outside of work'';
(3) ``threatening to revoke their medical licenses'';
(4) ``retaliat[ing] against their family members in Cuba if
participants leave the program''; or
(5) ``impos[ing] exile if participants didn't return to Cuba as
directed by government supervisors'';
Whereas, between 2013 and 2018, more than 20,000 Cuban medical professionals
served in Brazil and had their salaries garnished, movement restricted,
and family visits limited by the Government of Cuba;
Whereas investigative reporting by the digital platform Diario de Cuba, through
an access to information request, revealed that Brazilian diplomatic
cables detailed the terms of the Government of Cuba's medical missions
to Brazil;
Whereas, in early 2012, the Government of Cuba proposed to the Government of
Brazil the establishment of a program to send Cuban doctors to
geographic regions of Brazil that had an insufficient number of medical
personnel;
Whereas, during subsequent negotiations, the administration of former Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff proposed an agreement between the two
governments to be implemented through coordination with the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO) in order to avoid oversight by the National
Congress of Brazil;
Whereas the Government of Cuba stated that implementing the agreement through
the United States headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization
would present risks for potential violations of United States sanctions;
Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Cuba, acting through the for-profit
Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (Comercializadora de
Servicios Medicos Cubanos, Sociedad Anonima, or CMS), signed an
agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to formalize a
commercial arrangement for Cuban doctors to provide medical services in
Brazil;
Whereas the agreement between the Government of Cuba and the Government of
Brazil established--
(1) that the administration of former Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff would pay the Pan American Health Organization a monthly fee,
which would then pay the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading
Corporation (CMS) for the medical services provided by each Cuban doctor
serving in Brazil;
(2) that the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation
(CMS) would pay each Cuban doctor approximately 25 percent of the monthly
payment received from the Pan American Health Organization;
(3) that the Government of Cuba, acting through the for-profit Cuban
Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS), would retain approximately 75
percent of the monthly payment received from the Pan American Health
Organization; and
(4) restrictions preventing participating Cuban doctors from seeking
employment in Brazil outside of the formal structure of the program;
Whereas, in July 2013, the Government of Brazil announced the creation of the
Mais Medicos program, which included the participation of Cuban doctors
and doctors of other nationalities;
Whereas the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading Corporation (CMS)
commenced contracting Cuban doctors for the Mais Medicos program, and
the first Cuban medical professionals arrived in Brazil in August 2013;
Whereas Cuban doctors were the only medical professionals participating in the
Mais Medicos program to have their salaries directly garnished by their
government, and doctors of other nationalities serving in Brazil
received the full amount of their salary;
Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos program faced severe
limitations on their ability to travel inside Brazil and a prohibition
on travel to neighboring countries;
Whereas Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos program were prohibited
from having their families accompany them while stationed in Brazil;
Whereas the Cuban doctors frequently had their passports taken by Government of
Cuba officials present in Brazil in order to limit their ability to
travel;
Whereas the Department of State's 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report
documented how the Government of Cuba also confiscated Cuban doctors'
passports in other countries, and stated that ``the Cuban government
acknowledges that it withholds passports of overseas medical personnel
in Venezuela'';
Whereas the Pan American Health Organization's external auditor, the Spanish
Court of Audit--
(1) stated in its January 2018 report that 198 Cuban doctors have
presented 159 legal challenges in the Brazilian court system since the
start of the program in July 2013 demanding extra free time in their
contracts and equal working conditions as doctors of other nationalities
participating in the Mais Medicos program; and
(2) stated in its April 2014 report, in recognition of the legal risks
associated with the Mais Medicos program, that it would be ``prudent that
PAHO set a contingency plan to face possible negative statements of [the]
lawsuits'';
Whereas the Government of Cuba has stated that Cuban doctors unwilling to return
to the country after their participation in foreign medical missions
will not be permitted to return to their homeland for eight years;
Whereas the Government of Cuba directly profits from exporting the services of
Cuban professionals, having earned more than $8,000,000,000 from their
work in 2016, of which foreign medical missions represent the majority
of the income; and
Whereas the term ``severe forms of trafficking in persons'' is defined under
section 103(9)(B) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22
U.S.C. 7102(9)(B)) as ``the recruitment, harboring, transportation,
provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the
use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery'': Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the Government of Cuba subjected Cuban doctors and
medical professional participating in the Mais Medicos program
to state-sponsored human trafficking;
(2) Cuban doctors participating in the Mais Medicos program
should have been permitted to work under the same conditions as
all other foreign doctors participating in the program;
(3) the Government of Cuba should compensate Cuban doctors
that participated in the Mais Medicos programs for the full
amount of wages that were garnished by the Government of Cuba;
(4) foreign governments that sign agreements with the
Government of Cuba or the for-profit Cuban Medical Services
Trading Corporation (CMS) or other companies affiliated with
the Government of Cuba to procure the services of Cuban
professionals directly assume risks related to participation in
forced labor arrangements;
(5) the Pan American Health Organization must immediately
provide greater transparency about its participation in the
Mais Medicos program and its agreement with the Government of
Cuba and the for-profit Cuban Medical Services Trading
Corporation (CMS);
(6) the United States Department of State must downgrade
Cuba to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP)
report, given new evidence on Cuba's foreign medical missions
and the Government of Cuba's longstanding failure to
criminalize most forms of forced labor; and
(7) the Department of State must reestablish the Cuban
Medical Professionals Parole (CMPP) program.
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