Cuba Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to the US and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the facility can terminate the lease

Trafficking in persons

tier rating:

Tier 3 — Cuba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, therefore, Cuba remained on Tier 3; the government took some steps to address trafficking, such as amending the penal code to include criminalization of labor trafficking; however, the government continued a policy or pattern to profit from labor export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly in its foreign medical missions program; the government continued to deploy Cuban workers to foreign countries using deceptive and coercive tactics, and failed to address an increasing number of allegations from credible NGOs and foreign governments of Cuban officials’ involvement in trafficking crimes; the government used its legal framework to threaten, coerce, and punish workers and their families if they left the labor export and medical programs (2023)

human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Cuba and Cubans abroad; individuals are forced or coerced into participating in labor export programs, most notably the foreign medical missions program; sex trafficking and sex tourism, including child victims, occur within Cuba; traffickers exploit Cubans in sex trafficking and forced labor in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Mediterranean, and the US; foreigners from Africa and Asia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor in Cuba to pay off travel debts; officials identified children, young women, the elderly, and disabled persons as the most vulnerable to trafficking; LGBTQI+ individuals and migrants are vulnerable to sex trafficking; professional baseball players are at risk of labor trafficking; the government uses high school students in some rural areas to harvest crops without pay, claiming that the work is voluntary (2023)

Illicit drugs

Cuba is not a major consumer, producer, or transshipment point for illicit drugs; domestic production and consumption curbed by aggressive policing; prescription drug abuse remains low