Cuba Imposes New Travel Restrictions for Doctors

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban government announced today the imposition of travel restrictions on its physicians in the context of the recent massive exodus of doctors from the island, reported dpa news.

The measure announced in the official newspaper “Granma” returns, for doctors, to the situation before January 2013 when travel permits were required. The new restrictions take effect on December 7.

While not detailing the restrictions, the note said they will be valid for doctors’ “private trips abroad.”

“This does not mean that medical specialists cannot travel or live abroad, but the dates out of the country will be discussed,” added the text issued by the government, which also refers directly to the immigration policy of the United States as the cause of the current crisis in the region with migrants from the island.

The massive influx of Cubans seeking to travel to the United States has caused a migration crisis in recent weeks in Central America. Some 4,000 migrants from the island are stranded from mid-November on the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The Cuban government today blamed the crisis on the US immigration policy that explicitly gives facilities of residence to Cubans who reach the United States, even if they arrive illegally and referred in particular to doctors.

“The migration of Cuban health professionals is a concern for the country,” the statement said. Havana particularly criticized the US program to encourage doctors to abandon international missions, instituted by President Bush in 2006.

The wave of migrants from the island in the region is apparently due to speculation that Washington may soon remove the “Adjustment Act” which gives advantages to Cuban immigrants.