Behind the clean white coats of Botswana’s public service hospitals lies a little-known deal in which Cuban doctors who are keeping the country’s overstretched healthcare system afloat, are allegedly trapped in a lucrative network of state -sponsored “modern day slavery.”
Under the confidential bilateral agreement, obtained by the Sunday Standard, the Cuban government takes control of the doctors’ wages, with one international watchdog alleging that as much as 75% of their true earnings is siphoned off by the Cuban state.
While Botswana pays about P56,000 per every specialist every month, sources cited by international watchdog Prisoners Defenders say the Cuban professionals receive about P14,000. The watchdog has denounced the arrangement between the governments of Botswana and Cuba as “modern day slave trade.”
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