Experts call for compulsory HIV tests for migrant workers<\/p>\n
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Demography experts have called on the government to introduce
\ncompulsory anti-HIV\/AIDS tests for migrant workers as a way to
\nprevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus.<\/p>\n
Graeme Hugo, an expert from Australia's University of
\nAdelaide, who has conducted research on HIV\/AIDS in Indonesia,
\nsaid on Thursday such compulsory tests would help health
\nauthorities here find the exact number of virus-infected people.<\/p>\n
He said several countries had obliged arriving overseas
\nworkers to take compulsory HIV tests.<\/p>\n
\"It will be wise to run HIV testing for migrant workers to
\nobtain better figures on the HIV\/AIDS spread,\" Hugo told a
\ndiscussion, during which he presented the results of his
\nresearch.<\/p>\n
He said the high mobility of nomadic workers, who often
\nchanged sexual partners, had contributed to the vast spread of
\nHIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n
Hugo said the workers were separated from their spouses, were
\nfree from traditional constraints on sex and inevitably lived
\nnear red-light districts which made them prone to the virus.<\/p>\n
He said there were some places that presented migrant workers
\nwith greater risks of HIV and AIDS infection.<\/p>\n
The \"hotspots\" included isolated working places, such as ports
\nand harbors, mining sites and plantations, forest industries,
\nremote construction sites and border areas, he added.<\/p>\n
\"The high level of HIV infection is not necessarily related to
\npopulation mobility, but it is more contributed to by the type of
\npeople movement and their sexual behavior,\" Hugo said.<\/p>\n
Diah Widyarti, a researcher at the Ministry of Manpower and
\nTransmigration, underlined the need for the government to make
\nHIV tests compulsory for migrant workers.<\/p>\n
She said Hugo's study should be a wake-up call for the
\ngovernment to prevent the spread of HIV\/AIDS and other diseases
\nin connection with the workers' mobility.<\/p>\n
\"We need more similar studies and reliable documentation. We
\nshould intensify the dissemination of information about this
\nmatter to improve the workers' awareness since we cannot conduct
\ncompulsory HIV tests,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Hugo said he recorded a significant rise of the temporary
\nlabor migration within the country in the last decade, in which
\npeople moved to isolated working sites.<\/p>\n
\"This study shows a pattern of many cases, in which mobile
\npeople are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior
\nwith commercial sex workers, many of them not using condoms,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Although there was no comprehensive research yet on the number
\nof temporary workers with HIV\/AIDS, Hugo urged the government to
\ntake action to curb the likely rapid spread of the virus due to
\nits high prevalence in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
According to official data released by the government last
\nyear, only 1,559 cases of HIV\/AIDS were so far recorded. But
\nactivists said the number of Indonesians infected by the lethal
\nvirus reached between 80,000 and 120,000.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sri Moertaningsih Adioetomo of Jakarta's University
\nof Indonesia, said one quarter of the 210 million Indonesian
\npeople traveled to make a living.<\/p>\n
All of them were unskilled workers who were prone to
\ncontracting HIVAIDS, she added. \"They become street children,
\nscavengers and prostitutes and are more vulnerable to HIV\/AIDS.\"<\/p>",
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