Migration, health care and HIV

Migrants, Hiv and lack of access to health services has been known to be a difficult topic to discuss mainly due to the complexity that surrounds different reporting methods used by different countries eg HIV prevalence, incidence etc, nonetheless it’s a subject worthy of discussion.

This article will try to establish the relationship that exists between lack of access to health services due to being a migrant and the rising number of new HIV cases, it shall also briefly elaborate some of the reasons why it’s important for receiving nations to provide better access and friendly health services to migrants.

Migration is a characteristic of mankind. People have migrated throughout history, but the migratory flows of the

last 30 years are distinct to those of the past in terms of magnitude and velocity. Approximately 192 million people (3% of the world’s population) were international migrants in 2006, of which 95 million were women [6]. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that the annual migratory increase is 2.9%. The United Nations (UN) defines as international migrant any person who changes his or her country of usual residence. Migrants could be classified according to the main reason of their migration (economic migrants, students, political refugees, environmental migrants, etc), the intended duration of the migration (temporary, permanent, intermittent), the boundaries of the process (internal migration vs. international ones) and the legal and administrative processes (regularized or ‘legal’ migrants vs. undocumented or ‘illegal’ ones).

Migrant populations are at a higher risk than the overall population for poor health in general and HIV infection in particular. There are several reasons for these phenomena, some of which are related directly to the effects of the socio-cultural patterns of the migrant situation. Others are related to economic transitions and changes in the availability and accessibility of health services, and the difficulty of the host country health systems to cope with the traditions and practices of migrants. In terms of these factors, HIV/AIDS is not different than other problems, but it is further complicated by the stigma attached to those infected with the virus.

It cannot be contended that refusing a certain group of society in this case migrants, access to health services is a clear violation of human rights and creates breeding ground for all sorts of diseases and HIV infection in particular.  Admittedly this lack of access to health services might not be as result of government’s refusal to treat migrants, it’s rather the unfriendly if not hostile health laws surrounding the health care system to migrants in different host countries. For example a migrant who is found to be HIV positive risks deportation or even worse detention pending deportation. In addition, as with other people living with HIV/AIDS, migrants who are HIV-positive are subject of stigmatization and discrimination, and therefore, they hide their HIV status as long as possible, thus making support services unavailable for them and the number of new HIV cases to reach astronomical levels.

In view of this it is important for host nations to provide health care systems that are migrant friendly in order to reverse the prejudice that has been created around health care for migrants. This will consequently reduce the number of new HIV cases and above all health and access to health is a right.

Health being a right and therefore an international issue, there is an urgent need for concerted political action by various groups such as academics, health professionals and institutions against this type of institutionalized discrimination and gross violation of human rights.

Finally it is also important to make known that access to health is a right and therefore an obligation on the part of governments and that is possible to provide fight HIV without violating human rights.

By Eric. Y-PEER Algeria

References

-migrant populations and HIV @unaids

-migrant: epidemiology of HIV and AIDS

-oxford monitor of forced migration,2011

-migrants and AIDS: risk management versus social control

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