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.