HEALTH-FRANCE: Gov’t Makes AIDS Worse for Immigrants

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jul 9 2003 (IPS) - Immigrants of African origin report an unusually high incidence of AIDS in France, and recent government measures are only making it worse.

The reported incidence of AIDS is rising particularly among immigrant women, says a report by the French Health Watch Institute (INVS, after its French name) published in May.

"Discreet investigations at hospitals have revealed that this increase is linked since 1999 to the arrival of sub-Saharan immigrants already suffering from AIDS," the report says.

The relatively high prevalence of HIV and AIDS among immigrants has been detected only incidentally, as the infection often is. "The illness was detected mostly in association with other medical studies among men, or during pre-natal and pregnancy tests among women," the report by the government-run INVS says.

Some studies indicate low reporting of the condition by immigrants. Ikambere, an association of African women fighting AIDS says detection of the virus among women can often mean "social death before they succumb to the disease."

Ikambere, which means ‘Welcome Home’ in the Rwandan national language Kinyarwanda, says "women suffering from AIDS like to keep their illness secret because they know that if they tell their families, they will immediately be thrown out of home." Several cases remain hidden, though there are indications that reporting of the disease has improved.

More than 40,000 have died of AIDS in France since its outbreak 20 years ago, the INVS report says. Another 25,000 are living with the condition.

Despite the development of new vaccines, about 700 people still die every year of diseases with AIDS at the root, the INVS report says. A disproportionately large number of them are reported to be immigrants.

The INVS report says that immigrants accounted for close to a third of the approximately 1,700 new cases of AIDS detected last year. Immigrants form 6 percent of the French population of about 61,000. The report says that another 4,000 to 6,000 people report new HIV infections every year.

The condition of immigrants with HIV or AIDS is now becoming more precarious as the government cuts down on medical services for them. The Ministry of the Interior partially revoked an earlier law that allowed illegal immigrants who had contracted AIDS to get treatment.

The old law gave immigrants right of residence "if the health situation calls for urgent medical treatment, and they cannot obtain treatment in their countries of origin." But minister for the interior Nicolas Sarkozy ordered tighter controls in December.

An order from Sarkozy said that "the residence permit should be given only in exceptional circumstances." The heath ministry was ordered to assist border control staff to keep immigrants with HIV or AIDS out of France.

The new measures targeted also immigrants within France. Sarkozy wrote in the same circular that "some doctors authorised to deliver medical certificates (necessary to obtain residence permits) are abusing this facility." The order gave border staff powers to order prosecution of doctors suspected of treating illegal immigrants.

Officials were also asked to draw up a list of African countries where basic treatment against AIDS is available.

Act Up, a support group for those with AIDS has demanded cancellation of the new measures. "The government would either condemn immigrants to go back to their countries of origin to die there in neglect, or to die in hiding in France," the group said in a statement. Such measures would only "help the disease to spread and to increase its deadly toll."

A spokesman for Act Up said no official figures had been made available on the number of immigrants with HIV or AIDS who had been expelled.

The new measures could push the condition below the surface, a leading AIDS activist says.

The high number of immigrants among AIDS cases is showing up now as evidence of improved reporting, and not just a spread of the disease, says Noel Ahebla from the counselling group ‘2001 African Positive’ told IPS.

"Some years ago, African immigrants wouldn’t go to the doctor for tests on sexual diseases," Ahebla says. "This attitude has fortunately changed, leading to an increase in the number of cases reported." But the new policies aimed at stopping treatment for immigrants are likely to reverse that trend, Ahebla says.

Expulsion of refugees found to be suffering from AIDS is taking place "frequently", he says. And that could force many into hiding.

"Most of the African or Arab countries that the refugees are sent back to lack even elementary medical facilities, or the will, to treat people suffering from AIDS or other serious sexual diseases," he says. "The result is that a high number of people dying from AIDS are immigrants, while French people with the condition have easy access to therapies and medical treatment."