Court orders government to rehire Cubans from Mais Médicos

A decision by Judge Carlos Augusto Pires Brandão, from the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, determines that the federal government rehires Cuban professionals who participated in the More Doctors program. The information was revealed this Saturday (28) by CNN Brasil.

The doctors represented by the entity returned to Cuba after the Caribbean country interrupted the contract with Brazil in reaction to statements by then-president-elect Jair Bolsonaro (PL) that he would review the rules of the program. In all, 1,789 professionals who were part of the 20th group of Mais Médicos should be rehired.

Pires Brandão’s decision meets a request submitted by the National Association of Medical Professionals Trained in Foreign Institutions and Exchange Students. According to CNN, the judge 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.

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) had already expressed interest in resuming the Mais Médicos program, which should be accelerated with the court decision. The program allocates medical personnel to the most vulnerable areas of the country, where it is difficult to hire professionals.

“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”, quotes the judge in the decision.