The United States has called on Caribbean countries to seek alternatives to Cuban medical professionals to address shortages in their health systems, warning that participation in the programme may amount to forced labour and exploitation.

In a social media post on February 6, the United States Embassy in Barbados, which has responsibility for Bridgetown and the Eastern Caribbean islands, said the American government is committed to holding Cuban regime officials, foreign government officials and others accountable for facilitating forced labour in Cuba’s medical missions.

“The United States is committed to holding accountable Cuban regime officials, foreign government officials, and others for facilitating forced laboUr in Cuba’s medical missions. By participating in these programs, despite known human rights abuses, foreign governments become complicit in the regime’s tactics,” the embassy said.

“Their actions directly contribute to the abuses of Cuban workers. There are alternative methods available for Caribbean nations to recruit foreign medical workers and ethically meet the healthcare needs of their people.”

While not stating what consequences regional officials and their families could face using Cuban medics, an accompanying photo indicated they could be denied visas or have existing ones revoked. 

The embassy also called on governments and citizens across the region to stand against what it described as the exploitation of Cuban medics.

The statement follows comments by Saint Lucia Prime Minister Philip Pierre, who claimed the United States had instructed his government to stop sending students to the communist-run, Spanish-speaking island to study medicine.

Pierre later said there are no plans to withdraw Saint Lucian medical students currently studying in Cuba.

The United States Embassy in Bridgetown denied holding talks with Saint Lucia about international education, stating that the United States “respects countries sovereign decisions relations education of their citizens.”

On February 25, 2025, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration was expanding its existing Cuba-related visa restriction policy targeting forced labour linked to the Cuban labour export programme.

The policy would restrict sanctioned individuals and their family members from receiving United States visas.

“Cuba’s labor export programs, which include the medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime, and in the case of Cuba’s overseas medical missions, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country. The United States is committed to countering forced labor practices around the globe. To do so, we must promote accountability not just for Cuban officials responsible for these policies, but also those complicit in the exploitation and forced labor of Cuban workers,” Rubio said.

Following the announcement, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who was Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the time, told Parliament that although the island did not have Cuban medical staff at the time, “we could not get through the [Covid] pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors”.

She added: “I will also be the first to tell you that we paid them the same thing that we pay Bajans, and that the notion, as was peddled not just by this government in the US, but the previous government, that we were involved in human trafficking by engaging with the Cuban nurses was fully repudiated and rejected by us.”

Mottley added that she is prepared to lose her United States visa if “we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter”.