The Bahamian prime minister says he will renegotiate his labor agreements with Havana
[caption id="attachment_129102" width="1024"]
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis in a file photo. / EFE[/caption]
14ymedio, Madrid, May 8, 2025 - The meeting on Tuesday in Washington between Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis and senior U.S. officials to discuss the hiring of Cuban doctors bore fruit the following day. This Wednesday, local media reported, Davis declared that his government would renegotiate its labor agreements with Havana and, from now on, would pay all health workers on the island directly.
"We were able to communicate to them, and I think they were satisfied, that we are not involved in any forced labor that we are aware of," Davis told reporters upon arrival at Nassau Airport, referring to his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio the previous day.
The prime minister reiterated the idea—“If forced labor is occurring in our country with Cubans, we have no record of it”—and asserted: “What we are doing now, what we have been doing in recent weeks, is identifying what I call elements of forced labor to see if any of them are present in relation to any of the workers here in the Bahamas. If we discover anything like that, it will be corrected.”
[[These “elements of forced labor” can be various, he said, for example, “sharing an employee’s salary with the Government.”]]
These "elements of forced labor" can be various, he said, for example, "sharing an employee's salary with the government," referring to the portion of doctors' salaries that goes not to the worker but to the Cuban state. However, he argued that this "concept is not unknown."
He referred to the program through which Bahamian farmers were employed as seasonal workers in the United States—known as the Indenture—which was in place from the 1940s until the Bahamas gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1973. He noted that part of the payment was made to the British government and part to the workers. He said: “That's not an unknown concept or construct. But it's now considered an ingredient of forced labor. So, we'll address that. Anyone we hire, we'll say, 'Look, we'll pay you directly into your account.'”
What Davis did not answer, The Nassau Guardian reports , is whether he would make public the contract signed with Havana, revealed in part by Archivo Cuba last month in a devastating report . According to the investigation by this US-based organization, health workers employed in the Bahamian archipelago receive only between 8% and 16% of what they pay the Cuban regime ($990 or $1,200 a month, depending on their position, compared to the $5,000 or $12,000, respectively, that the Bahamas pays each one).
"What I can tell you is that we are in the process of renegotiating all these memoranda of understanding for labor outside of Cuba, just as we are doing with other countries like the Philippines, where we have several foreign workers," the prime minister said.
[[Marco Rubio was asked whether Caribbean governments should refrain from hiring Cuban workers, and the Secretary of State replied that they should not.]]
Davis also recounted that they asked Marco Rubio if Caribbean governments should refrain from hiring Cuban workers, and the Secretary of State responded that no, they should simply ensure the employees were not subjected to forced labor.
Davis himself defended himself last March against US accusations regarding the medical missions , asserting that the country's laws and Constitution prohibit involvement in human trafficking and that his government "will never engage in forced labor."
At the end of February, the United States announced that it would not issue visas to Cubans or foreigners involved in the export of labor from the island, especially doctors, which numerous international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Prisoners Defenders have been denouncing for years. The Cuban regime reacted not only to this decision, calling it "coercive" and arguing that it was based on "falsehoods," but also to foreign governments.
Caricom President and Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley even stated that she was "prepared," like other leaders in the region, to lose her US visa if a "sensible agreement" on the matter was not reached, as "principles matter."
Wenn du deine Übersetzung unterschreiben willst, trage deinen Namen bei den anderen Namen (wenn es welche gibt) unten ein. Achte bitte darauf, dass: "*Übersetzt von:" vor dem Namen steht
Hier klicken, wenn du möchtest, dass dir jemand bei der übersetzung hilft oder dass sie überprüft wird
Schreibe, was du in dem Bild siehst (ohne Leerzeichen)
