LONDON — An proposal by a group of conservative British lawmakers to ban HIV and Hepatitis B positive immigrants from entering the United Kingdom, was shot down Thursday in the House of Commons.
The amendment, part of a larger comprehensive immigration bill, was defeated before Members of Parliament approved the final version of the legislation.
The proposal, introduced by Conservative MPs Dr. Phillip Lee, Stephen Phillips, Stephen Barclay and Tracey Crouch, had proposed that “persons who apply for immigration permission must demonstrate that they are not carriers of any of the prescribed pathogens listed” which included Hepatitis B and HIV.
Seventeen other Conservative MPs had also signed on supporting the amendment.
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Activists had expressed their shock at the proposal, calling it draconian, barbaric, and stigmatizing.
A spokesperson for UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, noted that immigration HIV-related restrictions not only “do not protect the public health” but “violate other human rights” and “can impede effective responses to HIV.”
