Vice President of Cuba's Council of State Carlos Lage Davila said on Saturday that developed nations are luring away large numbers of talented professionals from developing countries every year.

Speaking at the 16th meeting of the Ibero-American Nations Organization, Lage said high salaries and other benefits were pulling doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses and other professionals to work in developed countries, prompting a brain drain in developing nations.

Developed countries did not repatriate these people and instead were using various means to make them stay, he said.

It is estimated that there was an exodus of 240,000 professionals from Latin America to developed countries in 2005 alone. Their countries spent at least 5 billion U.S. dollars of training fees and other expenses for them.

Lage also accused developed countries of lacking the political will to help solve the migration issues, and criticized the U.S. government for suspending migration talks with Cuba and adopting restrictive measures against Cuban nationals.

The Ibero-American summit, being held in Montevideo, capital of Uruguay on Nov. 3-5, is focused on migration issues.

Source: Xinhua