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Christi Naude. News24.com,
Dec.8, 2002.
Pietermaritzburg - Cuban doctors have resorted to telling lies about the age
of their children in order to keep them in South Africa.
In terms of a new contract given to the doctors, children of 15 years and
older must return to Cuba.
The doctors are also "not allowed" to fall pregnant, nor can they
apply for permanent South African residence.
The contract - accompanied by a cover letter from Cuban co-ordinator Jamie
Davis on a letterhead of the South African department of health -was confronted
about the plight of Cuban doctors on the TV programme Special Assignment.
"Attempts to separate Cuban children over the age of 15 from their
parents in South Africa will be fiercely resisted in South African courts,"
says Ishana Hassim.
She is one of the attorneys who will be representing about 20 Cuban doctors
in their battle against alleged human rights violations in the Cuban/South
African contract.
Some of the parents say South Africa initially had been the only country
which allowed doctors to bring their families with them in Cuba's
government-to-government contracts with foreign countries.
"At that time the South African government felt strongly about keeping
family units together because they said they had known the pain caused by
migrant labour.
However, the last 150 doctors were not allowed to bring their families. And
now our children have to go," a couple said.
Harrowing stories
Harrowing stories are told by children, whose parents lied about their ages
to keep them in South Africa.
Sixteen-year-old pass as 14 year olds out of fear that they would be
deported.
This "silence" about their birthdays is especially traumatic for
Cuban girls, as a 15th birthday is regarded a milestone in a woman's life and is
celebrated flamboyantly with ball gowns and big parties in Cuba.
A 15-year old boy is so desperate that he has asked for a new identity.
"Can't you say that I was killed during a hijack and make me born again
as a different person?" he asked an attorney.
Psychological problems
Parents, who have had the experience of "losing" a child, said
it's a traumatic experience for both parties.
"The deported children often have psychological problems to adapt to
the Cuban school system, after being exposed to a South African lifestyle where
they could exercise freedom of choice.
They don't mean to offend teachers, but are sometimes seen as capitalists
and picked on as traitors for speaking their minds," a mother said.
'Free hospitals'
Her son, who has been spending the holidays with his parents in South
Africa, told the Witness about the trouble he got into for correcting his Cuban
teacher that Cuba was not the only country with free hospitals.
"I told her about the free South African hospitals and cited an example
of a hospital, which I thought was much cleaner than the Cuban hospitals. For
that I was sent to the principal and severely punished."
He also got into trouble for wearing a T-shirt with the US flag. "I
don't want to go back to Cuba. In South Africa I feel like a person, not just a
toy somebody can play with.
Here you can say no when you don'' agree," the distressed boy said.
SA government
"How could the South African government have agreed with terms and
conditions that separate families?" the doctors asked. Joanne Collins,
spokesperson for the department of health, said she was not aware of the latest
contract, of which the Natal Witness has a copy.
Conditions
KwaZulu-Natal Cuban co-ordinator Dr Juan Depestre Meneja, who handed out the
Spanish contract, said the doctors had been aware of these conditions.
"Knowing about it does not make it moral or right," the objecting
doctors said, adding that they would sign anything just to get out of Cuba.
Hassim said she would, if necessary, take the issue as far as the
Constitutional Court.
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