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Targets U.S. Immigration Ban |
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By Rex Wockner International News Report
The group is urging supporters to ask their member of Parliament to raise the issue with the United Kingdom government and the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. "People with HIV still experience unacceptable discrimination when they seek to enter the USA," THT said. "They are faced with a choice of (1) making a false declaration, which means abandoning or hiding their combination therapy or smuggling it into the U.S., with all the risks that this involves to their health as a result of disruption of their treatment, or (2) obtaining a special waiver, secured in their passport, which breaches their confidentiality but also leaves them open to continuing discrimination by U.S. immigration officials.
Those who do use it frequently report problems, the organization said. "From the relatively small number of people with HIV who do apply for waivers, THT has heard a disproportionate number of bad experiences," the group said. "These range from hostile or prejudiced treatment, to unreasonable delays causing people to miss expensive flights, to intrusive questioning on production of the waiver at point of entry and even temporary detention." |
The Terrence Higgins Trust, Britain's largest AIDS
charity, is launching a new campaign against the U.S.
immigration rules that restrict the entry of
HIV-positive foreign visitors.
