3.00PM: A decision by the USA to continue invasive and repressive immigration restrictions on traveling HIV positive New Zealanders is being labeled hypocritical, humiliating and "a broken Presidential promise" by this country’s largest HIV organisations. US President George W. Bush called on World AIDS Day in December 2006 for the entry criteria for HIV positive people to be reviewed and simplified, but his Department of Homeland Security has just issued a "streamlined" policy for entry into the United States which still requires HIV positive people to seek special permission from US officials before entering the country, even for a holiday. The permission process includes providing personal information about a person’s medical condition and treatment regime. Body Positive Auckland spokesperson Bruce Kilmister says he has seen HIV positive people merely transiting through the USA publicly humiliated by being placed under armed guard with their travel documents seized at the entry airport. They have later been marched onto a return flight home. He says the policy places enormous stress on traveling HIV positive New Zealanders, and those from other nations, by forcing them to either lie about their status, risk exposure due to the need to travel with vital HIV medications, or front up about their status to the NZ embassy in New Zealand for a waiver and have their details and status permanently listed on a US government computer database. "This is a staggeringly hypocritical policy," Kilmister says, "given that the USA itself was the source of the HIV epidemic in most western countries like New Zealand." The NZ AIDS Foundation is also highly critical of the unchanged policy. "This is unacceptable treatment given what we know about HIV and AIDS in 2007," says Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier. "This policy feeds discrimination, stigma and myths about the virus which are decades out of date. HIV is not a casually transmitted illness, and HIV positive people should not require special waivers to go on holiday." The United States Government should be ashamed that it has broken a Presidential promise to ease travel restrictions for HIV positive people entering the country, says the Foundation. Other HIV positive support groups and AIDS organizations around the world have also condemned the unchanged policy, noting that The United States is one of only thirteen countries that bar HIV positive people from entering its borders, putting it alongside the likes of Iraq, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Neither Body Positive nor the NZAF have indicated whether they will be making a formal complaint to through US authorities in New Zealand. [Editor's note, Wed 12 Dec, 3pm: The NZAF says it does not currently anticipate taking any further action taken on the waiver issue as the time for public submissions has passed.]
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 11th December 2007 - 3:12pm