Cuba objects to being placed on US trafficking list

Cuba objected Wednesday to being placed on the US human trafficking list, saying it distorted the overseas work of its doctors and its requirement that students work as part of their education.

The US State Department on Monday removed Cuba from its bottom rank of countries with the poorest records on human trafficking, noting improvements in Havana's handling of sex trafficking. But it placed it on a second-tier watchlist instead.

"Cuba should not be on any unilateral list nor be the object of surveillance of any kind," the Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement.

It added that Cuba was committed to a policy of "zero tolerance" of prostitution or the commercialization of sex.

While acknowledging that the State Department had noted Cuba's efforts to combat sexual trafficking, the foreign ministry hit out at US criticism of its record on forced labor.

"It continues to present tendentious and manipulated elements on the selfless work, amply recognized internationally, of our medical collaborators in third countries," it said.

Thousands of Cuban doctors and health workers are stationed in countries in Latin America and Africa under government to government contracts that have become an important source of hard currency as well as diplomatic good will.

But there have been complaints that the Cuban doctors are paid far less than their local counterparts, or than what Havana receives for their services.

The foreign ministry also said the State Department "distorts the Cuban educational system, which applies the teachings of (independence hero Jose) Marti in linking study with work, in qualifying as supposed forced labor these tasks these Cuban students carry out."