WHAT THE FOREIGN MINISTER SAID
Following a leak of what appeared to be documents from the internal files of The Bahamas Ministry of Health, the Foreign Minister of The Bahamas Fred Mitchell said the following as reported in The Tribune on Friday 25 April 2025 from comments made in the House of Assembly on 23 April 2025 and a voice note of the same date and an interview with the press in Fox Hill on the same date
The Bahamas government does not engage in any practice contrary to international labour norms. Let’s make that abundantly clear,” he said.
“The use of the purloined documents could not have been meant to do us any good, posted as they are, without explanation, context or checks on their authenticity. These are signs of the times in which we live, these actions where friends are foe, and foe pretends to be a friend, and it is difficult to tell who is what and what is what.”
The documents, which purportedly bear the signatures of Bahamian and Cuban officials, suggest that while The Bahamas pays thousands of dollars monthly for each Cuban medical worker, the professionals receive only $990 to $1,200 monthly. The remainder appears to go to the Cuban state agency Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos (CSMC).
In the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Mitchell said the government must resist forming policy based on “subjective interpretations of untested material,” adding: “This is dangerous stuff, though, for Bahamians in an atmosphere where public policy is being made, often taken by subjective interpretations of untested material.”
He warned that public officials should not have their right to travel “abridged or threatened” based on such leaked documents.
Speaking separately to reporters at a Fox Hill event, he did not comment directly on whether he believes the US government played a role in the leak. However, he said there is growing concern that unauthenticated materials could be “weaponised” against Bahamian officials.
He urged Bahamians not to adopt foreign narratives uncritically, especially
in sensitive areas like immigration and labour diplomacy.
He said The Bahamas must rely on its “moral values and our voice” as a small nation without economic or military power.
“We don’t have the economic power, we don’t have military power, we only have the moral values and our voice,” he said. “The elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.”
“Folks who are well meaning ought to be more careful and circumspect in this world that we live in today. You cannot argue that you’re doing good when you know, in fact, you may be inflicting harm.”