No country, no job and no money
By the Progreso Weekly staff
Cuban ex prisoners that left to live in Spain two years ago find themselves unemployed and about to lose the subsidies they receive from the government of Spain, according to an article published Saturday, June 2, in The New York Times.
According to the Times correspondent in Madrid, “After Spain negotiated their freedom from prison nearly two years ago, 115 Cuban dissidents landed here expressing gratitude for the chance to start anew in a country that seemed full of promise.”
Today, “many of the same Cubans are protesting again — this time, over the precarious living conditions in their adopted country, a lack of jobs and their loss of subsidies from a now cash-strapped Spanish government.”
“The Cubans, who were transplanted along with 647 of their relatives, have become the most prominent example of the hardships of the more than 5 million migrants – 11 percent of the population – who arrived during Spain’s decade-long boom but now stand on the front line of its economic crisis,” says the Times.
“Some of the Cubans have held protests in downtown Madrid, as well as in other cities like Málaga, to demand that their government support payments be extended, and critics and opponents of the government have accused it of abandoning the former dissidents.”
The New York newspaper quotes one of the dissidents, Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso, saying that “it is hard to generate any sympathy here, but our situation is desperate and I don’t know how I will be feeding myself and my family beyond this month.”
Unemployment among immigrants has reached 37%, way over the national average of 24.4%, which is the highest in Europe.
In April, the Spanish government announced that non-nationalized immigrants will not be eligible for free medical care if they have no proof of full residency status. That affects Cuban immigrants, who also complain that they cannot return to Cuba, where the health care system is free.
Somebody who came here of his own accord can at least go home, while there’s zero possibility for us to return to Cuba, which is where I would want to be living, said Gonzalez Alfonso to the Times, adding that Spain, “was never about where we would want to live.”
According to the Times, the ex dissidents receive approximately $1,000 monthly per person from groups in Miami, plus the help of Cubans in Spain. The $1,600 a month subsidy donated by the government was eliminated at the end of January.
The Spanish government says that the decision should be viewed in the context of the large budgetary cuts made so that Spain may resolve its finances. Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Margallo said that his government will continue helping the immigrants find employment but that it will not give them more money.
In the meantime, the Cubans continue to complain.
“The Spanish government wasn’t motivated by humanitarian concerns but because it wanted to be seen as the European country that could change policy toward Cuba,” said ex dissident Omar Rodriguez Saludes to the Times.
“When you see how little they care about us now, it’s clear that we were just a bargaining chip.”
Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain previous foreign minister who participated in the negotiations with Cuba which preceded the liberation of the oppositionist, told the Times that he preferred not to comment about them. That already is a matter for Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government, he said.
“Freeing these people was a source of great satisfaction and they received everything we could offer,” said Moratinos.
The original New York Times article can be found by clicking here.
