Returned to risk: deportation of HIV-positive migrants
20 December 2009. Related: On the web.
The 27-page report was prepared by Human Rights Watch, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, the European AIDS Treatment Group, and the African HIV Policy Network. It describes cases in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and the United States in which HIV-positive migrants were deported, and describes the need to develop policies guaranteeing uninterrupted treatment for this population.
The report documents:
- In Saudi Arabia: mandatory HIV testing; detention for up to a year without access to medication; and deportation of HIV-positive migrants.
- In the United Arab Emirates: deportation of 1,518 non-citizen residents infected with HIV; hepatitis types B and C; or tuberculosis in 2008.
- In South Africa: the inability to continue treatment amounting to a death sentence for people living with HIV who are sentback to Zimbabwe.
- In the United States: poor access to treatment in detention and harsh conditions or lack of access to medical treatment for some HIV-positive individuals who are deported.
- In South Korea: mandatory HIV testing of migrants and the deportation of those found to be HIV positive, despite South Koreas international legal obligations and a recent Seoul High Court ruling that such deportation is not the most effective means of protecting public health.
To read the Human Rights Watch report visit: