Cuba’s prison business: 60,000 prisoners are used as slave labor
Cuban government consolidates forced labor and slavery as its main economic drivers, exporting their production to Europe
LINKS TO THE REPORT IN 7 LANGUAGES : EN / ES / FR / IT / DE / PT / CS
Prisoners Defenders (15.09.2025) – This complaint report exposes the alarming situation of forced labor in Cuban prisons, revealing and demonstrating, without leaving room for doubt, the painful and criminal situation of forced labor exercised by the State, for economic and punitive purposes on a total of 60,000 of the prison inmates and 37,458 individuals serving open sentences in the country.
The report documents with complete qualitative and quantitative precision how prisoners are subjected to inhumane and exploitative conditions in an absolute and unpunished disconnection from international law and any labor rights.
Through an exhaustive analysis of all Cuban legislation throughout this complaint, in addition, we demonstrate how the laws in Cuba explicitly and impudently enforce forced labor on prisoners and convicts.
The elaboration of charcoal, agricultural, tobacco or sugar cane cutting (the “zafra”) under the most inhuman conditions of slavery, and the production obtained from such work, is destined in its entirety for export, mainly to European countries such as, in this order, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey, among others.
For the first time in many years, Cuba is facing increasing international accusations, including just months ago at the United Nations Human Rights Committee (A/HRC/57/46), for subjecting persons deprived of their liberty to contemporary forms of slavery for the production of goods for export.
The following complaint report compiles innumerable and incontestable quantitative and qualitative evidence on these practices, using official information, hundreds of interviews, and 53 tabulated, structured and statistically processed statements.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Methodology
Technical data
Preliminary extracts
Sample testimonies
Physical sequelae
Forced labor activities among common prisoners
Exports of charcoal produced under slavery in Cuba
Marketers in Europe of Cuban “Marabu Charcoal”
European law (some applicable legal principles)
Spanish Law (some applicable legal principles)
Portuguese law (some applicable legal principles)
Italian law (some applicable legal principles)
Greek Law (some applicable legal principles)
Turkish law (some applicable legal principles)
Cuban tobacco, another product produced using slave labor
Cuban cigar production in prisons vs. total
Forced labor activities among political prisoners
Documented patterns of forced labor violations
Percentage results of structural and systematic violations
Patterns of repression of men and women
Patterns of repression of Afro-Cubans and whites
How many sanctioned persons perform forced labor in Cuba?
Starting data for the national estimate
Duplicate estimate of convicts subjected to forced labor in Cuba
Detailed results on the reality of forced labor in Cuba
Legal opinion on the forced labor of prisoners in Cuba
On how the Cuban law enables this scourge
Legal conclusions with respect to Cuban legislation
Consequences of Cuban law enabling coercion to work
International approach in the field of human rights
Other Sources of Information on Forced Labor in Cuba
Prisoners Defenders International
Príncipe de Vergara 109, 2da Planta
28002 Madrid
Tel: (+34) 647564741
