Arbejdere fra Bangladesh forlader et område med lav forekomst af hiv for at arbejde i et område af Indien med tre gange så høj forekomst. Og når de vender hjem står de for halvdelen af nye hiv-smittede i Bangladesh. De to landes regeringer må finde en fælles politik, mener UNAIDS.
DHAKA, 26 November 2013 (IRIN): Interventions aimed at curbing the burden of HIV among people migrating from Bangladesh to India in search of work risk having only temporary impact if such efforts are not institutionalized as part of cross-border policy, experts say.
The inter-agency South Asia regional programme called Enhancing Migrant Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support (EMPHASIS) has reported success in reaching Bangladeshi migrants with HIV prevention services, and boosting HIV awareness among service providers.
Følger migrationens cyklus
“We have used the EMPHASIS model to address migration as a cyclical phenomenon,” Mohammad Abu Taher, a team leader at CARE-Bangladesh, the lead partner of EMPHASIS, told IRIN.
“Nuanced interventions at source, in transit, and at destination have allowed us to access Bangladeshi migrants with HIV services.”
But others warn that such interventions are not addressing the problem comprehensively:
“While excellent in the short term, this type of work is simply not sustainable; we cannot have INGOs [international NGOs] doing the work of governments,” Leo Kenny, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) country coordinator for Bangladesh, told IRIN.
“The imperative first step is an inter-governmental dialogue to start figuring this out at a policy level.”
Migranters illegale status
Labour migrants are responsible for more than 10 percent of Gross National Income in Bangladesh, but on returning home they and their spouses also contributed more than half of the new HIV infections in Bangladesh in 2011, according to government data.
Observers say the issue of effective cross-border interventions should include migrants in HIV responses, making services accessible, and negotiating sensitive political issues such as how the illegal status of irregular migrants can negatively affect their access to life-saving services.
Læs mere på: http://www.irinnews.org/report/99206/bangladesh-s-migrants-also-need-hiv-services
