Howard Wedges on Refugees with HIV
The Prime Minister began his next foray into refugee wedge politics this morning, with comments to the effect that refugees and migrants with HIV/AIDS and leprosy should not be allowed into the country. He claims that the next couple of weeks will see a review, in which he will champion his view, that
the best result is that no one with those sort of ailments is allowed into the country.
The first problem, Prime Minister, is that routinely refugees and humanitarian entrants with HIV/AIDS are not actually allowed permanent residency anyway. Despite DIAC’s avowed mission statement to help those most in need, the current strict health checks [pdf] ensure that all applicants over 15 must submit to a HIV test , and kids under the age of 15 can also be tested dependent on their symptoms/medical history. If you fail the test, that’s pretty much it, unless you can prove that the cost of your condition to the health care system is not “too high” – pretty difficult with a long term degenerative illness, although there’d be a huge outcry if the service wasn’t provided to human beings who happen to have been born in Australia. There have too been a very small number of people who have failed the health check and who have subsequently entered after Ministerial intervention.
The second problem – which of course would not have been a problem within minutes of the PM getting off-air from his comments – is that his own Ministers apparently disagree with the idea that all HIV sufferers should be denied entry. Not exactly a sterling advertisement for considered policy making on the part of the Prime Minister.
There’s also the fact that HIV positive applicants are pretty much the most vulnerable refugees and humanitarian entrants. HIV positive refugees and humanitarian applicants are people who have been living in conflict situations and camps, where sexual violence is endemic, and where basic necessities like food, medicine and shelter can be obtained or upgraded when sexual services are offered in return. Many HIV positive refugees have become infected as a result of rape. More at UNHCR’s Refugees with HIV/AIDS site, or theWomen’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.
There is a legitimate public health concern about people with communicative diseases being held accountable for wilfully spreading those diseases. But playing the wedge – summoning forth those demons from the populace, - literally, in this case playing with peoples’ lives –against the inclinations of your own Ministers – is an entirely reprehensible approach to Government and elections.
Mark wrote:
I just want to point out that if Howard is concerned about transmission of HIV, then he ought to insist that tourists are HIV tested and no-one is allowed into the country with HIV. That doesn’t seem to be what he’s saying, but rather that no-one who is HIV positive, whether they are in the country or not, should be denied residency on the basis of their HIV status. It would seem indeed that one could acquire HIV in Australia and then be prevented from remaining indefinitely in the country because of that fact. I actually have an acquaintance back in the UK who was infected with HIV in Australia in the 1980s as a result of a blood transfusion. Presumably she would be ineligible to migrate to Australia according to Howard.
Clearly the logic here (apart from the revolting electioneering of it) is that people should not be allowed into the country who are economically inactive, which people with AIDS are, hence people with HIV can be regularly expected to become. This is the overarching logic of Howard’s migration policy.
arleeshar wrote:
Oh, the Government’s actually quite explicit - the reason most people with degenerative diseases are denied permanent residency is that they will be too great a drain on the health system.
In the case of refugees and humanitarian entrants, who we only grant residency on the basis of their need in the first place, and whose need is only heightened by their HIV positive status, this seems awfully unjust.
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