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A "complete lack" of communication between the Home Office, the National Asylum Support Service and social services departments could result in the health of asylum seekers who are HIV positive deteriorating, a parliamentary report warned last week.

Migration and HIV: Improving Lives in Britain, by the all-party parliamentary group on Aids, focused on asylum seekers and refugees with HIV amid concerns about the growing stigma surrounding this group.

The report examined the impact on asylum seekers of immigration policy, particularly the use of removal centres, dispersal, and the benefits system.

"We found that such policies can negatively impact upon the physical and mental health of asylum seekers with HIV and increase the risk to public health of HIV transmission," said group chairperson Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow in east London.

The report says that the current asylum system forces individuals to live in "abject poverty", thereby undermining clinical efforts to maintain good health.

It recommends the government develop and implement national best practice guidance on asylum seekers who have HIV that involves Nass and social services. This should include training for senior personnel on how to maintain good practice, and a revision of the dispersal and benefits system.

In addition, the group is calling for an end to the detention of individuals with serious communicable diseases, such as HIV, if the government cannot provide for their care inside removal centres.


On the issue of the introduction of mandatory testing for HIV, the report recommends the government support policies that encourage HIV testing for the purpose of ensuring more effective access to treatment and care, but not with the aim of exclusion on the basis of an HIV positive result.

Community Care's campaign Right to Refuge, which was launched in May, aims to demand the fair treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. More information
Report from www.appg-aids.org.uk