The 24th Meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) -
the governing body of the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS -
began today in Geneva with a Thematic Session: People on the Move.

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"border-style: none; background-image: none; vertical-align: top; width: 100%; background-color: rgb(51, 102, 204); text-align: left;">Speech "border-style: none; background-image: none; vertical-align: top; width: 100%; background-color: rgb(153, 204, 255); text-align: left;">

"/jahia/Jahia/media/all-speeches/cache/offonce?entryId=25445"
linkindex="79" target="" title=""> "background-color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">HIV and mobility: Utilizing
partnerships to integrate migrants into global HIV
efforts

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Addressing the event, IOM Deputy Director General Ndioro Ndiaye
welcomed the focus on migration, calling for universal access to
HIV services for the world's 200 million migrants and emphasizing
the need for partnership and collaboration among international
organisations, governments and civil society to combat the HIV /
AIDS pandemic.

"Many migrants are vulnerable and lack access to critical social
and health services… This is often due to their status as
migrants, their exclusion from national policies and strategies,
poor recognition of their health needs and continuing
misconceptions associated with HIV and human mobility," she
said.

Emphasizing the Thematic Session's role in raising awareness of
migrants' need for access to better information and HIV services,
Mme Ndiaye said that effective policy responses must anticipate and
address HIV vulnerability at each stage of the migration process in
both migrant sending and receiving countries.

Migration itself is not a risk to health, but the migration
process can increase vulnerabilities to poor health, especially for
migrants who move involuntarily, fleeing natural disasters or
humanitarian crises, or those who find themselves in irregular or
exploitative conditions, she noted.

The links between migration and HIV are complex, with evidence
showing that much more needs to be done to promote and mainstream
the health of migrants, according to IOM HIV and Health Promotion
Coordinator Rosilyne Borland.

"Migrants are sometimes stigmatized for "bringing" HIV with them
to a host country. The evidence actually suggests that some
migrants are more vulnerable to HIV infection after they arrive
than local populations, especially female migrants who are
exploited or marginalized," she says.

The PCB follows the recent UN General Assembly debate on the
implementation of the Declaration of Commitments and the Political
Declaration on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS), the document drawn up by the
international community in 2001 pledging to combat the
pandemic.

IOM has been working closely with UNAIDS since the mid-1990s to
address population mobility and HIV through projects to improve
access to prevention, care and treatment for migrants. IOM's
experience has shown that addressing migrants' vulnerability to HIV
throughout all stages of migration requires strong multi-sectoral
partnerships within countries and internationally.

For more information and a copy of Mme Ndiaye's speech, please
contact:

Rosilyne Borland

IOM HQ in Geneva

Tel. +41 22 717 9234

Email: "mailto:rborland@iom.int">rborland@iom.int