WHY DOES CARAM Asia FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS and MOBILE POPULATION?

-While a national programme will address all nationals, whether they have travelled from part of the country to the other or not, but usually it will not target migrants who have come from other countries.

-The AIDS education messages are not in the languages of migrant workers.

-Health services are much harder to find and to approach for migrants.

-When migrants find themselves infected with HIV, they run the risk of becoming discriminated and deported.

-National governments of migrants-sending countries are not able to protect their leaving migrants from the increased vulnerability that is the consequence of migration, while governments of migrants-receiving countries are often not in the first place interested in 'doing something for foreigners'. Their main interest in migrants is in their labour and not in other aspects of their identities. International organisations have only recently taken up the issue of HIV/AIDS and migration as a possible priority.

Thus, CARAM-Asia considers the following legal consequences for cross-border migrants of great importance:

-Are there any HIV testing policies in relation to migration?

-What happens when migrants are tested HIV positive?

-Who will take care of them and in what country?

There is a special need for an international network of organisations to address this issue. CARAM has picked up this important subject. Policy makers and other organisations ignore.