Grenada has been named among countries targeted by new U.S. visa restrictions, allegedly for participating in a Cuban Government scheme that exploits medical professionals.
The sanctions, announced on Wednesday by the U.S. State Department, also affect Cuban officials and their families, along with unnamed government representatives from several African nations.
According to Washington, the sanctioned officials were complicit in a programme in which Cuban doctors and other medical personnel were "rented" to foreign countries at inflated prices.
Most of the revenue, the U.S. alleges, was retained by Cuban authorities, while the workers themselves received little pay, faced long hours, and endured harsh conditions.
The State Department says the scheme, which accounted for 75 perc ent of Cuba's exported workforce and earned Havana US$4.9 billion in 2022, involved confiscating passports, restricting movement, imposing curfews, and subjecting workers to surveillance and even sexual abuse.
It claimed that those who tried to leave the programme faced reprisals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that "countries who are complicit in this exploitative practice should think twice," adding that Washington is committed to ending what it calls a form of forced labor.
The U.S. is urging governments to pay Cuban medical professionals directly, rather than through what it described as "regime slave masters."
The Cuban Government has denied the allegations, with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez previously dismissing similar U.S. actions as "based on falsehoods and coercion."
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