From the NewsMax.com Staff

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Cuban Doctors in Limbo Seek Asylum in U.S.

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Last summer the Bush administration announced that any Cuban medical professional sent abroad by the communist regime was eligible for political asylum in the United States.

As a result, dozens of Cuban healthcare workers sent to Venezuela sneaked across the border into Colombia, hoping to start a new life in America.

But six months later, they are still in Colombia, unable to work, waiting for U.S. authorities to decide whether to accept them as political refugees, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"We don’t know why it’s taking so long,” said Ariel Perez, a physician holed up in Bogota. "We hope the United States government hurries up and makes up its mind.”

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  Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security – which is handling the applications for asylum from the stranded Cubans – said the applications "require us to look closely to determine whether or not the person is fully eligible for the benefit.

"The American public expects us to do that thoroughly and take as much time as needed to reach a sound decision.”

In addition to a lack of documentation from most of the healthcare professionals who left Venezuela, "there is also the suspicion that some of the refugees may be spies sent by Castro to see who is applying,” the Times reports.

Cuba has sent tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and dentists as medical missionaries to other nations, and they earn hard currency for the regime.

In Venezuela, the work of thousands of Cuban medical professionals is exchanged for $1.5 billion in oil shipments to Cuba.

But Venezuelan doctors have complained that the Cubans practice illegal medicine because their degrees from Cuba are not recognized in Venezuela, according to the Times.

Meanwhile dentist Norah Garcia and other Cubans who fled Venezuela are unable to obtain work permits in Colombia while the U.S. processes their applications, and they fear they could be deported to Cuba if the U.S. turns them down.

Said Garcia: "For the moment, we have no legal rights at all.”

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