Asylum Seekers and HIV

An untold number of immigrants seeking asylum arrive in the United States only to learn they are HIV positive, a devastating discovery that many trace back to torture that drove them from their homelands in the first place, local advocates said last week during the run-up to World AIDS Day on Friday.
     “Some of our clients that have been imprisoned for their political activities, like demonstrating in favor of democracy, have been repeatedly raped while in prison,” said Sarah Ignatius, executive director of the Boston-based Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project. “When they came to the U.S., they have learned that they were HIV positive.”
     Very little data is available about these so-called asylum seekers who cross the border without the safety nets of public assistance benefits enjoyed by refugees, who are classified and connected with a resettlement agency before they cross the border, said Dr. Sondra Crosby at the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights at Boston Medical Center. Click here.

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