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Justice determines rehiring of Cuban doctors from the Mais Médicos program

The Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region authorized, in a decision on the night of this Friday (27) obtained by the CNN , the rehiring of Cuban professionals from the Mais Médicos Program. The measure will have to be fulfilled by the federal government.

At the end of 2018, the doctors had to return to their country of origin after Cuba decided to interrupt the contract with Brazil, in reaction to statements by the then newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro, that he would review the rules of the program.

They were part of the 20th group of Mais Médicos, the only one since the beginning of the program that was not contemplated with the extension. At the time, Bolsonaro even accused the Cuban government of committing irresponsibility.

The new government had already expressed interest in restarting Mais Médicos. Now, the court decision speeds up steps because it allows all 1,789 Cubans fired in the last cycle to be rehired and have to return to Brazil

THE request was presented by the National Association of Medical Professionals Trained in Foreign Institutions and Exchange Students. The decision is signed by Judge Carlos Augusto Pires Brandão, from TRF-1.

He understood that the release is as important for Cuban doctors who will have to be rehired, as for Brazilian public health, especially in regions with more difficult access.

One of the characteristics of the program is to allocate the number of doctors to more vulnerable areas where, as a rule, many health professionals prefer not to work due to the precariousness of staff and supplies.

Yanomami crisis

An example of such an area, according to the magistrate, is the indigenous community of the Yanomami, which faces hunger and malnutrition.

“There is another fact to recommend this urgent judicial measure. The More Doctors for Brazil Program makes it possible to implement public health actions to combat the health crisis that has taken hold in the region of the Yanomami indigenous people. There is a state of public health emergency declared, decreed through the Ministry of Health”.

The magistrate recalls that the program was instituted in 2013 and had its constitutionality recognized by Congress.

“One cannot fail to recognize that the program reflects a special effort by the Federal Government, with the support of States and Municipalities, to provide additions of physicians in geographic areas characterized by scarcity or even absence of these professionals”, he pointed out.

“There are humanitarian issues raised in the file that require judicial positioning at this time. In all this context of public inaction, with the interruption of the Mais Médicos Program, the most vulnerable sections of the population are mainly affected. It cannot be denied that this program prioritizes the occupation of vacancies in the most needy municipalities, including with the function of combating the deleterious effects of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The judge also highlights the situation of doctors who did not have their contracts renewed. According to him, the majority had already established a family in Brazil.

“Cuban doctors hired at the time, and now frustrated in being rehired, find themselves in a context that restricts them to the existential minimum, due to the exclusive inaction of the Union, with direct offense to human rights statutes, already internalized in Brazil. It should be noted that humanitarian issues also materialize around the family nucleus of the professionals involved. It is evident that these physicians have broken legitimate expectations, most of whom have already started families on Brazilian soil”, he says.

“The judge’s decision was technical, precise and conscious. The right to health cannot be removed under any circumstances. Brazil is a country that needs special attention in the health area. We cannot close our eyes to humanitarian issues. We live in an unequal country. The More Doctors Program is a public policy designed to address a specific problem facing Brazilians in the health area. This is not a partisan issue. This is a question of the health of the Brazilian people, which includes the Yanomami”, said to CNN, this Saturday (28), the lawyer Rafael Papini, who represents the Cuban doctors.

Source: CNN Brasil

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