The Health-Harming Legal Needs of People Living with HIV in Australia
26 April 2023
At ASHM’s Joint HIV & AIDS and Sexual Health Conferences 2022, held on the Sunshine Coast, Health+Law Chief Investigator Dr David Carter delivered a presentation on our project’s pilot research into the harms inflicted on people living with HIV (PLHIV) by Australia’s migration system.
His presentation, which you can listen to below, explained that while the health criteria of Australia’s migration law are in place to protect Australia’s health system from undue expense, in the context of PLHIV they do exactly the opposite. These criteria actively harm the health of individuals, generating new health needs, as well as demanding extensive time and intervention by health professionals. This results in a health and legal system that is further burdened by migration law and processes.
The presentation includes descriptions from research participants of how the migration process created ongoing complications, expenses, and uncertainty around what services they were eligible for, worsening their physical health by causing them to fall on and off treatment. They also detailed migration processes lasting for years, upending their lives and causing significant stress, especially when dealing with non-specialist legal advice that could jeopardise their safety as well as their migration outcome. One respondent said that even when you have hope during this process, ‘you always have that hope with chains on your arms.’
David’s presentation delivered a powerful argument that the health criteria of Australia’s migration law are unreasonable, unpredictable and unjust exercises of governmental power that mean many people living with HIV in Australia are forced to live as if outside its borders while they undergo the migration process.
He concluded the presentation by introducing Health+Law’s intention to continue this research, and with it create a robust clinical-legal interface that will enable effective referral to specialist legal assistance for PLHIV seeking to migrate to Australia.