MPs blast government policy on asylum seekers with HIV

MPs today strongly criticised policies to charge failed asylum seekers for HIV treatment and return them to countries with poor access to anti-retroviral drugs.

In a report released to coincide with World Aids Day, the international development select committee said there was a “clear contradiction” between these policies and government ambitions of universal access to HIV treatment.

The report, HIV/Aids: Marginalised groups and emerging epidemics, said no progress had been made on this issue since it was raised in a report last year by the committee, and the situation weakened the government’s world leadership role on universal access.

It called on the Department for International Development should try and ensure the Home Office did not return asylum seekers with HIV to countries with poor treatment access.