HAVANA
(AP) — Cuba is eliminating longstanding restrictions on health care
professionals' overseas travel as part of a broader migration reform
that takes effect next week, an island doctor told The Associated Press on Monday.
Hospital directors learned of the new policy, which takes effect Jan. 14, in a Saturday meeting with Health Minister Roberto Morales
and word of the change was relayed in hospital staff meetings,
according to the doctor, who attended one of the subsequent gatherings.
The
minister's directive: "A doctor will be treated like any other citizen
starting now and can exit freely, as long as the destination country
allows it" by issuing an entry visa, said the physician, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to
foreign journalists.
"Apparently it has been completely repealed," he said. "No restrictions of any kind."
Another doctor confirmed that she had been told of the new policy.
For
many years Cuban doctors have been limited in their ability to travel
or had to undergo cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. They are routinely
denied permission to travel or receive it only if they plan to leave
for good and after a five-year process of being released from
their duties.
The
restrictions were justified as necessary to prevent brain drain from a
sector that is the pride of Cuba's Communist leaders, and which lost
thousands of skilled professionals in the 1960s as the country
increasingly embraced socialism following the Cuban Revolution. Many
more left during the economic crisis of the 1990s.
Other
individuals in strategic occupations such as scientists, military
officers and athletes have also had a hard time getting permission
to travel.
In
October, authorities announced the end of the widely detested exit visa
known as the "white card," which for decades was required of any Cuban
seeking to travel overseas. The reform also extended to two years the
amount of time Cubans can stay abroad without losing their full rights
as citizens.
The
United States offers special refugee status to Cuban doctors who defect
from international missions in Venezuela and other countries —
something the island government calls "theft" of talent.
The
new policy on health care workers applies to both those seeking to
emigrate and those simply wanting to travel as tourists or to visit
family overseas.
The
rules may not result in an immediate, massive exodus of medical workers
to Miami. Most would not be able to travel there without a U.S. visa,
although some who enjoy dual Spanish citizenship could get around
that requirement.
"They
told us they did a study and found that a high percentage of doctors
who go abroad (on missions or for conferences) return to the country, so
they don't have a reason to restrict medical personnel," the
doctor said.
According to government statistics, the island had 265,000 health care workers last year, including 78,000 doctors.
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