Employers of Cuban sailors, "an extension of the repression of the Cuban regime"
MADRID (appro).- .- Two of the most powerful shipping companies in the world, MSC Cruises (Malta Seafarers Company Limited) and the Canadian North South, contract with the Cuban government -through a state-owned company on the island- thousands of Cuban sailors, whose passports are confiscated to prevent them from deserting the mission, and their contracts include the clause that 80% of their base salary is withheld and delivered to the island government through the intermediary company .
This is demonstrated by the documentation and the testimonies of several sailors contained in the complaint presented this Wednesday 26 by the organizations Prisoners Defenders, Civil Rights Defenders of Stockholm (Sweden) and the Argentine Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) before United Nations and the International Criminal Court (CPI), to which he had access Apro.
The core of this third expansion of the complaint before the UN and CPI continues to be the violations of the fundamental rights of doctors and health personnel of the Cuban Medical Brigades (“1,111 doctors vs. Cuban Government”) abroad.
In what has to do with the sailors, the complaint establishes that those affected assured that "the employees of MSC Cruises became for them an extension of the repression of the Cuban regime."
They were also able to document that the agreement with Cuba obliges the luxury cruise company – which crosses the Mediterranean and the Caribbean – to pay a fine of "10 thousand dollars for each Cuban that escapes", and for this reason, "they declare to us that the employees of MSC Cruises became for them an extension of the repression of the Cuban regime, ”says the complaint.
Testimonials
In a virtual press conference, Javier Larrondo, president of Prisoners Defenders explained, when asked by Apro, that the declaring sailors reported that “on one occasion when docking at a port in Mexico – neither the port nor the date was specified – the person in charge of an MSC ship, did not let the Cuban crew go ashore when those of other nationalities were able to visit land, because a group of 25 Cubans, clients of the ship, did not return to the ship (in a Central American country where they had docked before) and they ´escaped´”.
He explained that, in Mexico, France and Italy, the immigration authorities usually board the ships to check the passports of the crew, but in the case of Cubans, after the process and when they intend to get off, "an MSC employee returns to retain the passport”, with which on many other occasions “they are allowed to go ashore, but without documentation”.
Some testimonies of the Cuban crew of these luxury cruises, the company MSC retains their passports in the "Crew Purser" - area responsible for the cash and finances of the ship, immigration and customs procedures - not only on the way, but also in the countries where they touch port, to prevent "Cubans from escaping"; retentions that do not happen with personnel of other Latin American nationalities, the complaint states.
The complaint indicates that the "sale of services" that the Cuban government makes in the so-called "international missions of Cuba", which include medical and health services, marine services, teaching, engineering, art, music and architecture, represent the main source of foreign government revenue.
While for the balance of the island, tourism represents the income of God 1,900 million dollars, income from international missions amounted to 8,500 million dollars in 2018 alone, that is, three times more than tourism.
The missions in all the aforementioned disciplines account for between 40 and 50% of the foreign balance received by the Cuban government.
The case of the medical brigades is, without a doubt, the one that has attracted the most attention. Prisoners Defenders and the other organizations filed the first complaint before the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, in May 2019, based on the testimony of 110 doctors (“110 doctors vs. Cuban Government) and in 2020 the complaint was expanded with testimonies of 622 Cuban doctors. Today the third expansion of the lawsuit called “1,111 doctors vs. Cuban Government” since new Cuban workers have decided to join the accusation.
In the framework of the second complaint, the weekly Proceso published in September 2020, that these medical missions sent by the Cuban government face situations of "slavery, persecution and inhumane acts." When many of them decide to leave the missions, they are considered “deserters” and “undesirable” by Cuban law, which prevents them from returning to Cuba in eight years (the so-called 8-year Law).
Information was also published about the terrible circumstances suffered by the Cuban doctors of the brigade sent to Mexico that year to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The testimonies were collected by Prisoners Defenders, but were not included in the lawsuit at the time.
Larrondo pointed out in an interview at the time that these violations of the doctors' human rights – salary withholding and degrading treatment by the heads of the mission – were due to the "negligence" of the López Obrador government.
seas of slavery
The complainant organizations investigated, in addition to other cases of the medical brigades, the case of the sailors as a result of having access to documents from various judicial processes in Europe, for the hiring of Cubans by the company MSC Cruises (MSC Cruises) and with the Canadian shipping company North South.
The Cuban crew members who worked in Italy point out that the company MSC Malta Seafarers Company Limited hired them through "a Cuban agent, the Selecmar company," which is state-owned.
In the documents of a contract to which access was obtained, it can be read in an appendix, “only for sailors from Cuba and the Philippines”, and in another annexed box it indicates that the intermediary agent (the Cuban company) will receive a “maximum of 80 % only for sailors from Cuba and the Philippines”. Base salary ranges from $77 to $95.”
One of the Cuban sailors hired by MSC has a monthly salary of 408 euros, of which the Cuban government withheld 80%, that is, 326.40 euros. In another case, the sailor had a base salary of 328 euros, but 262.40 euros were taken from him due to the withholding.
Through this agreement, the complainants point out, "these two countries would be exercising slavery on their own citizens, an exercise in which, according to the declarants, they would be fully aware, and if so, MSC Cruises would be the beneficiary"
However, the shipping company, being aware that this retention would cause a massive desertion, "gives them another 641 dollars outside the contract, in concepts beyond Cuba's control (tips and overtime)".
The complaint indicates that the sailors have assumed that this is being done behind Cuba's back so that they cannot retain 80% of the total, and thus be able to have a total salary of 727 dollars per month on average, a figure that, however, is many hundreds of euros below the minimum wage throughout Europe.
Larrondo explained that, under this mechanism, the Cuban crew gets to work almost 80 hours a week, many of them extra.
The complaint states that “in addition to the danger, the situation of family distance and dedication, as the testimonies of those who have worked on the MSC Cruises ships, between 10 and 12 hours a day, every day of the week. , up to 77 constant weekly hours, which represents 192% of the maximum working day allowed by the World Labor Organization”.
The complaint before the United Nations and the ICC includes a statement that the director of the Cuban state company Selecmar, Rafael Peraza, made to China's Xinhua News Agency last June, where he warns that the US blockade against the island affects the hiring of sailors by international cruise and freight companies.
He points out that these measures prevented the hiring of another 3,500 sailors in 2019 and 2020, noting that “the country currently has some 1,700 deck and engine officers, as well as more than 1,500 subordinates in service. As of 2019, the whistleblowers say, there were approximately 7,000 seamen on duty.
According to the testimonies collected, the situation of the Filipinos is worse, because they are enrolled in the lower part of the ship (laundry and other services), to the extent that the Cuban crew perceived "an exploitative treatment" towards the Filipinos, and the need for these It is so big “that they did personal cleaning, garbage disposal and laundry work for the crew, for which they received extra money in “black” that completes the apparent meager MSC salary.
Croatia has been the only European country that denied them to go down to its territory without a passport and demanded that they let them have their passport, not Italy and the rest of the Mediterranean countries where MSC cruises stop and the crew with Schengen Visa They get off the ship, after having their passport checked.
At the press conference, Dita Charanzová, vice president of the European Parliament, pointed out that Cuba's international brigades, mainly doctors, but also musicians, artists, architects or sailors, are used "as a propaganda mechanism for the regime."
According to the complaint, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs has replied to their previous complaints that it does not charge for these missions in those countries with more unfavorable economic conditions, however, they consider it to be false, since, they affirm, the Haitian mission has been paid for. for Norway. The mission in Cape Verde has been paid for by Luxembourg, and the mission in Guinea-Bissau has been paid for by Portugal with European funds.
Erick Jennische of Civil Right Defenders said that 894 testimonies reflect that they are considered undesirable on the island and are prevented from returning to the island, by the eight-year law.
According to the complaint, between five and 10,000 Cubans abroad right now cannot reunite with their families – they are prevented from leaving the island – and a total of 40,000 Cubans have gone through this same process.
For his part, Juan Pappier, of Human Rights Watch (HRW), pointed out that the report prepared by his organization reveals that Cuban legislation includes "abusive norms" that prevent Cubans in these international missions from interacting with people who are "hostile or contrary to the Cuban Revolution.
