HIV and AIDS continue to affect the lives of many people in Asia,
including cross-border migrants – a category of most-at-risk-population that continues to be relatively neglected within HIV-related service provision.
With this population in mind, the EMPHASIS project, led by CARE International
UK, was set up, designed specifically to address vulnerability to HIV among
migrants moving from Bangladesh and Nepal to India, with a special focus on
women.
The key messages from this briefing demonstrate that:
- A comprehensive and context-specific approach is required to tackle migrants’ vulnerabilities including addressing issues related to safety and dignity, rights and entitlements, as well as HIV and broader health-related challenges.
- To maximise impact, projects targeting migrants should plan interventions at source, transit and destination with both migrants and their spouses.
- Migration projects should include components that focus on women migrants’ specific vulnerabilities, such as harassment, violence, stigma and discrimination, as well as their vulnerability to HIV and other health problems
Mirza Manbira Sultana, Fiona Samuels and Prabodh Devkota