Forced Labor of Cuban Doctors – Trafficking Victims Protection Act
CGL continues to represent Cuban doctors who were forced to “volunteer” for missions abroad where their movements and communications were monitored and restricted and their wages were confiscated, in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. In March 2022, CGL won an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In a 3-0 decision, the panel ruled that an international organization cannot invoke immunity if it acts as financial intermediary that receives benefits from forced labor, because such activity is essentially commercial. This is the first such ruling in the history of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.