DUSHANBE, June 7, 2011, Asia-Plus — The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Mission in Tajikistan and the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Tajikistan have initiated conducting roundtable formally titled “Problems of the Labor Migrants Access to HIV Prevention through Transport Corridors.”
According to the IOM Mission in Tajikistan, the meeting that is being conducted today has brought together representatives, from MoH, IOM Mission, Ministry of Transport and specialists from international and non-governmental organizations to discuss the actuality of the HIV prevention among labor migrants through transport corridors.
The results of the assessment of the of the labor migrants access as well as possible ways on involvement of the transport services to the implementation of the National Program on Combating HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan for 2011-2015 will be presented on sidelines of the meeting, which is conducted in the framework of the project, Community Mobilization for HIV Prevention among Labor Migrants and their Families, under financial support of the UNDP Project Implementation Unit of the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The IOM Mission in Tajikistan notes that labor migrants actively use railway, air and surface transport to achieve countries of destination and coming back home. According to the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan, monthly passenger traffic through the all types of the transport compose nearly 66,250 people, accordingly annually 795,000 passengers.
Information campaign on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV prevention among labor migrants and their families have been actively implemented in the 45 target districts as a part of the National Program on Combating HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan for 2011 – 2015 under financial support of the UNDP Project Implementation Unit of the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria.
At the same time IOM, WHO, UNAIDS, ILO recommend countries to provide labor migrants” access on HIV prevention in all stages of the migration: in the country of origin, transit country, country of destination and upon return. For the time being interventions implemented by initiative of the international organizations and non governmental organizations to cover labor migrants by HIV prevention activities through transport corridors are not enough.
Taking into consideration relevance of the migrant”s health issues, volume of the labor migration from Tajikistan, as well as it importance for the economic development, it is necessary to develop sustainable mechanism for providing labor migrants” access to HIV prevention through transport corridors.
