Thu 4 Feb 2016 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A man wishing to visit Australia was allegedly denied entry because of his HIV positive status. The Scandinavian man says he has visited Australia every year for 22 years and has been HIV positive since 1994 however on applying for a tourist visa was told he failed a medical test because of his HIV status. The Star Observer reports that the Commonwealth Medical Officer came to the conclusion that the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, “did not satisfy” regulation as he is “likely to require health care or community services… [at] significant cost to the Australian community”. The man says he has never required hospital care while in Australia previously and had a doctor in Sydney assess his health, telling him his health couldn’t be better for someone with HIV. “Even though I have HIV, I am a healthy person…. someone’s saying: ‘you’ve got HIV, we don’t want you here’.” Australian officials have insisted that this was “administration error” and that an HIV positive status does not prevent people from visiting Australia.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 4th February 2016 - 2:36pm