The IOM office in Tanzania is next week hosting a country
consultation on the HIV vulnerabilities faced by mobile populations
and border communities in Tanzania.

The two-day consultation, which opens on 1 June, is co-hosted by
the Immigration Department, Ministry of Home Affairs, and the
Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS). It will bring together key
players from the government, civil society, international and
regional organizations and development partners, to share best
practices in responding to HIV, mobile populations in border
areas. 

Tanzania borders eight other African countries and has in
addition a vast coastline towards the Indian Ocean, which forms an
entry and exit site for cargo ships, national and foreign
seafarers. The port of Dar es Salaam is one of the larger ports in
Southern Africa and links regional transport corridors of Southern
and Eastern Africa. Furthermore, the border areas have at times
been subjected to large movements due to conflicts and wars but are
also common trade routes for businessmen, truck drivers, fishermen
and other vendors.

With respect to HIV and AIDS, particular HIV vulnerabilities
have been recognised for uniformed personnel, truck drivers,
fishermen, seafarers and other groups that either cross borders or
reside in adjacent areas.

In early 2010, IOM conducted a rapid field assessment together
with the Immigration Department in the border areas looking at the
health situation, in particular HIV and AIDS, in border communities
and among mobile populations such as fishing communities, transport
workers, uniformed border personnel and seafarers.

Findings from the field assessment suggest that border and lake
areas are hotspot areas with high HIV prevalence and high risk
sexual behaviours with multiple concurrent partners and low condom
use. Previous studies show that HIV prevalence may be up to four
times higher than the national average in these areas, meaning that
every fifth person in the age group 15-49 is HIV positive.

Findings from the field assessment found that 59 per cent of the
uniformed staff and 52 per cent of men from border/mobile
populations had two or more sexual partners, which is almost three
times higher than the average number of sex partners among the
general population as noted in the national THIMS survey from
2008.

Furthermore, 55 per cent of the interviewed men who currently
have two or more partners said they never used a condom over the
past month. The assessment also found that border areas have
comparatively low access to HIV prevention, care and treatment
services, which shows upon a gap in the national and regional
responses to the epidemic. These hot spots may contribute
significantly to fuelling the approximately 200 000 new infections
a year in Tanzania.

The assessment findings will be shared at the consultation, and
will also serve as evidence for identifying existing gaps and
challenges of HIV response programmes, systems, structures and
policies in boarder areas and among migrant populations.

In addition, IOM will launch four documentary films that display
the HIV vulnerabilities of the four mobile populations the rapid
field assessment has surveyed, namely: fishermen, seafarers, truck
drivers and uniformed border staff.

IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of
migration, to promote international cooperation on migration
issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to
migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to
migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced
people.

For more information contact:

Josephine Obel

IOM Dar es Salaam

Tel: +255 22 260 29 35

E-mail: "mailto:jobel@iom.int">jobel@iom.int

or

Markus Larsson

Tel: +255 22 260 29 13

E-mail: "mailto:mlarsson@iom.int">mlarsson@iom.int