Last Cuban doctor defectors arrive in US after policy change

Last Cuban doctor defectors arrive in US after policy change
Thursday, February 9th 2017, 9:30 am CET

MIAMI (AP) - Yoandri Pavot applied just in time for a visa under a
recently scrapped U.S. policy that had long welcomed doctors from Cuba
who defected while on assignment in third countries.

Pavot and other Cuban doctors arriving this week in Miami under the now
canceled policy called the Cuban Medical Professionals Parole said
they're relieved to be arriving despite uncertain times for immigrants
under the Trump administration. But they're anxious about colleagues
left behind.

"I still can't believe it. Pinch me. Pinch me. I can't believe I am
here," Pavot, 35, said after arriving Monday at Miami International
Airport holding a small American flag. "I wish they would give the ones
left behind a chance because they are also fighting for freedom."

The program - begun in 2006 by then President George W. Bush - allowed
Cuban doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to defect to the
U.S. while on their government's mandatory assignments abroad. Pavot
said he had applied after the Cuban government dispatched him to a
crime-ridden area of Venezuela, where many co-workers were attacked.

The waning administration of President Barack Obama canceled the
doctors' policy Jan. 12. It also eliminated the better-known "wet foot,
dry foot" policy that gave any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil a path to
become a legal resident. The moves lined up with Obama's push for a more
normalized relationship with communist Cuba.

But doctors who already applied for visas before Jan. 12 are being
allowed in, and the final wave of those accepted are arriving on flights
to Miami this week, said Julio Cesar Alfonso, director of a nonprofit
that helps Cuban doctors resettle in the U.S.

On Monday, a few walked through glass doors past Customs to loud cheers
and hugs from close and distant relatives carrying flowers and balloons.
They cried and took photos.

Alfonso said 20 professionals arrived Monday and more are expected on
flights this week.

Some critics of the doctors' policy have said it amounted to a more than
decade-long brain drain for Cuba. But proponents said the doctors were
forced by the Cuban government to toil overseas under often-grueling
conditions and deserved to be liberated.

The repeal of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy was welcomed by many in
the Cuban exile community who accused certain recent arrivals of abusing
privileges by claiming federal benefits and then traveling back to Cuba.
But many of the same criticized the cancellation of the medical
defectors program; they're urging the Trump administration to restore it.

Under the policy, qualifying medical professions could immediately apply
for work permission and apply for residency after one year.

President Donald Trump has not established what, if anything, will
change regarding Cuba policy. Press secretary Sean Spicer said last week
the administration is reviewing its position with Havana.

Cuba's doctors abroad program has earned praise from the World Health
Organization for responding to the Ebola outbreak in Africa and to
natural disasters such as Haiti's 2010 earthquake.

Yet its critics are fierce.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican U.S. representative born in Cuba, said
the Cuban doctors worked under "modern-day indentured servitude" and
that the defector program was "undermining the Castro regime by
providing an outlet for Cuban doctors to seek freedom from forced labor."

Some critics also say the Cuban government exploits medical
professionals abroad by taking away most of the wages paid by foreign
governments and using the funds as a source of hard currency for the island.

Alfonso said hundreds of doctors are currently stranded in Colombia,
after deserting their missions in Venezuela, and many didn't manage to
apply in time.

"It's really sad that Obama left that legacy with the Cuban community,
favoring the Havana regime and crushing the hopes of a group of
professionals who want to be free," he said.

Yerenia Cedeno, a 28-year-old general practitioner, said she deserted
her mission in Venezuela because of violence and meager pay that
sometimes wasn't enough to buy food.

Although she had applied for a visa before Jan. 12, she thought her
chances of reaching the U.S. were slim once the program was canceled.

"I am immensely relieved because when we saw the program ended, we lost
hope. Then we got the visa, and I was so happy," Cedeno said after
arriving at the Miami airport. "We can say that we were saved."

Source: Last Cuban doctor defectors arrive in US after policy change -
KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock -
http://www.kcbd.com/story/34462892/last-cuban-doctor-defectors-arrive-in-us-after-policy-change