GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Sept. 4, CNS – Researchers have concluded that migrants are an underserved and vulnerable population in the Caribbean.
Team leader for the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) at the recent International AIDS Conference Robert Cazal-Gamelsy, called for an end to institutional stigma and discrimination against migrants in health and HIV services.
He said this should translate into domestic law and the signed international legislations and treaties that facilitate migrants’ access to these services.
There was also a recommendation for the removal of the obligation of presenting identification or national health insurance cards to use HIV services, and that countries adopt true ‘Universal Access’ to HIV services.
In the Caribbean, there is support for the adoption of the regional PANCAP Model Antidiscrimination Legislation; developing an amendment to the regional PANCAP Model Legislation to strengthen access of vulnerable migrants to HIV services; and conducting trainings using Caribbean training modules on human rights, cultural sensitivity and stigma and discrimination against migrants.
Specifically in Suriname, work is being done to include HIV in the law on venereal diseases to allow free and universal access to HIV services.
In Trinidad & Tobago, the Caribbean Court of Justice has given a litigant leave to challenge immigration law that prohibits entry of homosexual people into the jurisdiction. And in St. Maarten the project is working to modify rules to get the authorisation to import generic antiretroviral drugs; and adopt the Universal Access principle regardless of resident status.
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