Prime Minister of Grenada The Hon. Dickon Mitchell attends the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Occasions Sq. on Sept. 23, 2024 in New York Metropolis.
Photograph by John Lamparski/Getty Photos for Concordia Summit
Shocked by the truth that the Trump administration has carried by with threats to revoke American entry visas for Caribbean officers linked to the Cuban medical brigade program, Grenada’s authorities, on Friday, mentioned it has but to obtain formal notifications about visa revocations.
A authorities assertion indicated that overseas ministry officers are participating the State Division concerning Wednesday’s announcement that an unspecified variety of Grenadian officers and their households have canceled their visas as a result of they’ve enabled the controversial hiring of Cuban medical professionals to work within the Jap Caribbean island.
Washington has been railing towards this system for a lot of this 12 months, charging that the Cuban authorities attracts nearly all of the pay of each employee, with solely a small portion going to docs, nurses, biomedical engineers, and others working in CARICOM, dubbing it as slave labor and human trafficking.
To this point, solely officers in Grenada, with its tally of greater than 100 medical staff, have been focused. Guyana, the Bahamas, and Antigua just lately gave clear indicators of plans to pay the employees on to keep away from working afoul of the Trump administration on this difficulty.
“The Ministry of International Affairs is actively engaged with the authorities of america, by established diplomatic channels, in addressing this matter. We guarantee the folks of Grenada that your authorities is attending to this example with the utmost duty and in the very best pursuits of our nation. We urge the general public to be guided by official info issued by the ministry, as we’ll present additional updates as acceptable,” the transient assertion famous.
Grenadian officers had been adamant about not being too fearful about shedding their visas, contending that the Cubans present a lifeline service to the native well being sector and will stay. Different Caribbean governments have made comparable arguments, suggesting they intend to proceed the preparations, even when they should tweak the cost system.
