New Zealand

Executive summary

New Zealand's role began 12 February 2015 under a bilateral arrangement providing English-language training for Cuban medical personnel destined for Pacific island nations, renewed in 2017 for three more years before lapsing, with the mission now listed inactive and zero active personnel. No official statistics were published, precluding comparison, though independent research documents roughly fifty Cuban doctors deployed since 1999 receiving only $200–300 stipends, unpaid for months in Solomon Islands, and stranded in Kiribati amid repatriation cost disputes. Trained in English, yet abandoned to silence and unpaid wages. No electoral or propaganda activity is documented, though the arrangement reflects Cuba's broader strategy of exporting labour under state-controlled contracts. Language lessons could not translate into protection.

Mission data

Research profile