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
