People living with HIV, including foreign migrants, need continuous access to prevention, treatment, care, and support. The Russian Federation remains the main destination for migrants from neighboring countries, primarily Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. However, HIV continues to be a significant challenge for those migrants. Russia has a restrictive legislation that prevents foreigners diagnosed with HIV from staying in the country long term, working, or obtaining a residence permit or citizenship. If someone tests positive for HIV, they may be forced to leave the country either voluntarily or through deportation. For labor migrants, forced return to their home country can result in serious hardship or even be impossible.
In recent years, the country has made some improvements to that policy. The regime was humanized to a certain extent: a novel was introduced allowing foreigners with HIV to stay in the country if they had close relatives and comply with legislation on addressing HIV infection. However, due to limited application of this law and the lack of access to free antiretroviral therapy (ART), many challenges remain for migrants with HIV in Russia, both in terms of their legal status and access to healthcare.
The Regional Expert Group on Migration and Health (REG) supports an initiative aimed at providing remote registration and monitoring for citizens with HIV from EECA countries while migrating to Russia. Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan initially joined the initiative, with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan expected to join later. The remote registration process involves several steps: (1) identifying or re-identifying a person living with HIV in the host country, (2) collecting diagnostic documents in the host country and sending them to the AIDS Centre in the person’s country of origin, (3) the AIDS Centre reviewing the case, (4) issuing a treatment plan and ART prescription, (5) arranging for ARV medication to be delivered from a country of origin to the host country, and (6) continuing ART in the host country with regular follow-ups from the AIDS Centre of the country of origin.
The REG’s participatory action research of a two-year implementation of the remote registration mechanism used a range of qualitative methods, including document analysis, in-depth interviews with 13 experts, a review of related studies, and participation in partner events. The findings, analyzed using web-based software, provide key conclusions and recommendations for expanding remote registration and monitoring systems in the EECA region. Suggested measures include enhancing legal literacy among migrants, strengthening collaboration between legal and health sectors, advocating for legal reforms to address existing issues, and increasing funding for NGOs that play a critical role in implementing the system. The results will guide practitioners, NGO leaders, social workers, and other stakeholders working to accelerate the HIV response in the EECA region and beyond.
The publication is available in RUS
