US, South Korea lift entry limits based on HIV status

MANILA, Philippines — The United States and South Korea have lifted travel limits against people with HIV from entering the two countries, it was learned Tuesday.

And United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations agency tasked with fighting the spread of the human immuno-deficiency virus congratulated both countries for doing away with the “discriminatory” travel policies.

The restrictions against people with HIV took effect January 1 in South Korea, and January 4 in the US, according to the UN office in Manila in a statement on the issue.

The UN chief praised South Korea President Lee Myung-bak for “ending restrictions towards people living with HIV that have no public health benefit.”

“I repeat my call to all other countries with such discriminatory restrictions to take steps to remove them at the earliest,” he added.

Michel Sidibé, executive director of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), called the policy changes in both nations “a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe.”

He issued a “call for global freedom of movement for people living with HIV in 2010, the year when countries have committed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.”

“Let no country obstruct someone because of their HIV status. Such discrimination has no place in today’s highly mobile world,” Sidibé said.

Last October the US announced the removal of the travel barriers, and on Monday it fully implemented the final rule that removes the restrictions, overturning the so-called “travel ban” in place since 1987 that puts limitations on the entry, stay, and residence of people living with HIV.

Currently, nearly 60 countries, territories, and areas have some form of HIV-specific restriction on entry, stay, and residence. Some places completely ban entry of HIV-positive people for any reason or length of stay, with some applying the restriction to short stays or longer ones, including for people applying for asylum and international employment.

“Such restrictions, strongly opposed by UNAIDS, are discriminatory and do not protect public health,” UNAIDS stressed in a news release. –Veronica Uy, Philippine Daily Inquirer