Deported HIV spouses return

Deported HIV spouses return

SINGAPORE (DPA): Only one-third of the foreign spouses
deported from Singapore because they have AIDS have returned to
be reunited with their families one month after the government
lifted its ban, it was reported on Sunday.

Of the 11 wives and one husband ousted under the previous
policy, four spouses from Thailand, Indonesia, China and the
Philippines came back under the new repatriation policy.

The latest to rejoin her family, a 30-year-old woman, told The
Sunday Times of the trauma of separation when she was deported in
May after her social visit pass expired and was not renewed
because she had been diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS.

While her Singaporean husband also tested positive, their
three-year-old son shows no symptoms of the deadly disease.

"I cried every day and kept thinking, 'I already have this
disease, why must our family be separated?'"

Of the 12 spouses ousted, four have offspring living in
Singapore.