On December 9, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the Regional Expert Group on Migration and Health (REG), together with the Central Asian Association of People Living with HIV, the Community Friends Public Foundation, and the Den Sooluk Nuru Public Foundation, and with expert support from the Kazakhstan Scientific Center for Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, held a working meeting titled “Migration and Health: National and International Approaches to Ensuring Access to HIV Services for Migrants.”
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss national and regional approaches to ensuring migrants’ access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Participants—including representatives of UNAIDS, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Republican AIDS Centers of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, NGOs, and foundations—shared successful practices in organizing HIV-related services for migrant populations.
A separate session was devoted to identifying new solutions to increase treatment coverage and curb the spread of the epidemic in Central Asian countries, taking into account current migration trends and challenges.
Also, during the meeting, the REG presented results of an analysis conducted in Kazakhstan on the number of foreign migrants living with HIV and recommendations for improving access to HIV services for foreign migrants in the country. The analysis was held within support from the regional project “Sustainability of services for key populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) – #iSoS: Empowering and Innovations”. The report’s data is essential for developing prevention programs and analyzing the budget resources needed to allocate for program implementation. A publication of the report will follow.
