Russia: Migrants workers to undergo HIV testing every 3 months

Labor migrants in Russia will be obliged to take a PCR test every 72 hours and tests for HIV and other infectious diseases every three months

Automatic google translation – For original article in Russian, please scroll down

On July 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on state fingerprint registration of visa-free foreign citizens in Russia.

According to the law, visa-free foreigners will now have to undergo fingerprinting, photographing and medical examination without fail within 90 calendar days from the date of entry. They will be given a corresponding document.

And labor migrants will have to go through all these procedures within 30 days. They will be required to confirm the absence of HIV infection, infectious diseases that pose a danger to others, as well as drug addiction.

Moreover, if they are diagnosed with drug addiction or HIV infection, then “a decision will be made about the undesirability of their stay in Russia.” Failure to comply with this law threatens to reduce the length of stay of foreigners in Russia.

The law will come into force in December.

Human rights activist Valentina Chupik explained that according to this law, migrants will have to take PCR tests to detect coronavirus every 72 hours, as well as do tests for other infectious diseases every three months.

“I suppose that after this story not a single legal migrant will remain in Russia. For example, I will not be able to spend 1950 rubles every three days on a PCR test. […] As far as I understand, the one who signed these laws did not even read them. Well, he hasn’t read them for years. And the one who made these laws has no idea about Russian legislation and about migration statistics, ”said the human rights activist.

She sent a letter to the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev asking for help in this situation and urged migrants from other countries to also appeal to their authorities. She believes that in this way the Russian authorities “will pay attention to what they have done in the field of migration law and get down to business.”

Трудовых мигрантов в России обяжут сдавать ПЦР-тест каждые 72 часа и тесты на ВИЧ и другие инфекционные заболевания каждые три месяца

Президент России Владимир Путин 1 июля подписал федеральный закон о государственной дактилоскопической регистрации безвизовых иностранных граждан в России.

Согласно закону, безвизовые иностранцы теперь должны будут проходить дактилоскопическую регистрацию, фотографирование и медосмотр в обязательном порядке в течение 90 календарных дней со дня въезда. Им будет выдаваться соответствующий документ.

*Дактилоскопическая регистрация — сдача отпечатков пальцев.

А трудовые мигранты должны будут пройти все эти процедуры в течение 30 дней. Они будут обязаны подтвердить отсутствие ВИЧ-инфекции, инфекционных заболеваний, которые представляют опасность для окружающих, а также наркотической зависимости.

При этом, если у них выявят наркоманию или ВИЧ-инфекцию, то «будет приниматься решение о нежелательности их пребывания на территории России». Несоблюдение этого закона грозит сокращением срока пребывания иностранцев в России.

Закон вступит в силу уже в декабре.

Правозащитница Валентина Чупик пояснила, что согласно этому закону, мигранты будут должны сдавать ПЦР-тесты на выявление коронавируса каждые 72 часа, а также каждые три месяца делать тесты на другие инфекционные заболевания.

«Я так предполагаю, что после этой истории ни одного легального мигранта в России не останется. Я, например, не потяну тратить каждые три дня 1950 рублей на ПЦР-тест. […] Я так понимаю, что тот кто подписывал эти законы, их даже не читал. Ну он их уже много лет не читает. А тот, кто производил эти законы понятия не имеет о российском законодательстве и о статистике миграции», — заявила правозащитница.

Она направила письмо к президенту Узбекистана Шавкату Мирзиееву с просьбой о помощи в этой ситуации и призвала мигрантов из других стран также обратиться к своим властям. Она считает, что таким образом власти России «обратят внимание на то, что они понаделали в сфере миграционного права и займутся делом».

Turkmenistan: New law provides free HIV treatment but mandates HIV testing prior to marriage, and for people who use drugs, prisoners, blood donors and foreigners seeking work visas.

Turkmenistan has passed a law under which all people seeking a marriage license must be tested for HIV.

The law implies that anyone found to be infected with the virus that is the precursor to AIDS would be denied a marriage license.

Reports in state-controlled media on April 6 said the law was enacted “in order to create conditions for forming healthy families and avert the birth of HIV-infected children.”

Authoritarian Turkmenistan has given little public information about the extent of HIV infection in the country.

The new law also requires HIV tests for anyone suspected of using narcotics, foreigners seeking work visas, prisoners, and blood donors.

Under the legislation signed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, the government will guarantee free treatment to people infected with AIDS.

In 2002, Turkmenistan’s Health Ministry claimed the country had only two cases of HIV and that both patients had been infected outside the Central Asian state.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

South Korea: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says mandating HIV testing only for foreigners is "discriminatory and an affront to..dignity"

A New Zealand woman’s rights were violated when her employers in the Republic of Korea demanded that, as a foreign English teacher, she undergo HIV/AIDS and drug tests as a condition of having her contract renewed, United Nations experts have found.

The Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was considering the case of the woman, whose contract was not renewed in 2009 after she refused to undergo a secondary mandatory HIV test required only of foreigners, arguing it was “discriminatory and an affront to her dignity.”

In a statement released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today, CERD members noted that the Republic of Korea did not provide any reasons to justify the mandatory testing, from which Korean and ethnic Korean teachers were exempt.

They also noted that, during arbitration proceedings, the woman’s employers, the Uslan Metropolitan Office of Education (UMOE), said that HIV/AIDS tests were viewed as a means to check the values and morality of foreign English teachers.

The testing policy, the Committee wrote in its findings , “does not appear to be justified on public health grounds or any other ground, and is a breach of the right to work without distinction to race, colour, national or ethnic origin.”

The Committee called on the Republic of Korea to grant the woman adequate compensation for the moral and material damages she suffered. The Committee also urged the authorities to take steps to review regulations and policies related to the employment of foreigners and to abolish, in law and in practice, any legislation which creates or perpetuates racial discrimination.

“The Committee recommends the State party to counter any manifestations of xenophobia, through stereotyping or stigmatizing, of foreigners by public officials, the media and the public at large,” members wrote. The Committee has asked the Republic of Korea to inform it within 90 days of the steps it has taken.

In its submission to the Committee, the Republic of Korea said that, since 2010, its guidelines on the employment of foreign teachers do not specify that they have to submit results of HIV/AIDS and drugs tests to have their contracts renewed, and that mandatory testing is no longer required by the UMOE.