In a move that would leave Russia as one of the few countries with HIV travel restrictions, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that the United States would overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.
The order will be finalized Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the administration of President George W. Bush.
The United States has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status. The 11 other countries that ban HIV-positive travelers and immigrants are: Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Sudan, according to the advocacy group Immigration Equality.
“If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” Obama said.
Russian authorities are keeping a close eye on the U.S. repeal, in an indication that Russia might end mandatory HIV tests for foreign residents. A 1995 law requires foreign nationals to pass an HIV test to receive a visa to stay in Russia for longer than three months.
The Health and Social Development Ministry has been waiting to see the details of the U.S. plan before considering its own steps.
Vadim Pokrovsky, the country’s top AIDS official and head of the Federal AIDS Center, has said that supporters of Russia’s HIV restrictions always cite the U.S. example. “They say something like, ‘If the U.S. keeps it, then there must be a reason for it and all the more so for Russia,’” he told The Moscow Times last year.
Pokrovsky criticized the ban as a “violation of human rights because it limits the freedom of movement.”
HIV testing is not required for visits of up to three months and for those who enter Russia with tourist visas.
(AP, MT)