HIV and migrant populations

1
HIV and migrant populations

• General problems
• Immigration and xenophobia linked
• Immigration often linked with legal
  irregularities poor access to health and
  social services
• Immigration linked with secularism cultural
  communication problems - counceling
• Immigration linked with different disease
  patterns compared to main population

2
HIV and migrant populations/2

• General problems/2
• Immigration linked with different disease
  patterns compared to main population
• Inaccurate surveillance and poor knowledge about
  the actual dynamics of HIV within migrant
  communities
• Poor understanding of the risk factors

3
Public health perspective

• Can we provide proper counceling and treatment in
  a cultural-sensitive way?
• Do we know what is actually going on? (hidden
  populations, different groups)
• Can we handle the situation among illegal
  immigrants? (Cave discrimination!)
• How to meet societal challenges like xenophobia
  among the general population?
• Which strategy?
• 1.Integration (help in homing etc)
• 2. Separate services

4
Recommendations (to the meeting)

• Better definitions, more research and information
  is needed to fully understand the HIV problem
  among non-native populations,
• Legal and economic restrictions and obstacles
  vary from one EU-country to another, a need for
  Ombudsman at EU level,
• Emphasis should be on human rights. Access to
  proper cARV-treatment is a useful criterium
• In training, target populations must be involved
  in the implementation

5
A symbolic outcry from the Northern Europe
(E. Munch Outcry