Russia: Court dismisses HIV-Positive migrant's appeal, ignoring family connections and medical evidence

A court in St. Petersburg has declared Amin K., a citizen of Uzbekistan, as undesirable to stay in Russia because he has HIV. At the same time, medics consider him “epidemiologically safe”, the press service of the city’s courts reported.

Amin K., who lived in St. Petersburg, learned in 2017 that he had HIV. In 2018, the court deemed his stay in Russia undesirable and notified him by letter, which Amin did not receive. In July 2023, he was not allowed on a flight from Dushanbe to St. Petersburg.

Amin challenged the undesirability decision in court, but the court dismissed his appeal.

The court did not take into account the Tajik citizen’s arguments that he was taking antiviral therapy and had a statement from the Center for AIDS Prevention and Control saying that he could not transmit the infection to other people. The court also failed to take into account that Amin’s brother and parents are Russian citizens, although the law allows people with HIV to remain in the country in such cases.

Why migrants with HIV are expelled

Russia is one of 19 countries in the world and the only one in Europe with restrictions on migrants with HIV. According to the law, which has been in force since 1995, foreign citizens who are HIV-positive will be denied temporary residence, work or study permits, residence permits or grounds for long-term stay in Russia. The exception is the presence of family members in Russia. Migrants are obliged to take an HIV test when obtaining a residence or work permit in Russia.

Experts explained to Takiye Dela that at the time the law was passed, the authorities believed that the epidemic in Russia could be prevented by limiting the flow of people with HIV. But by the end of the 1990s, HIV had spread throughout Russia anyway, including through injecting drug use.

However, the countries from which migrants most often come to Russia – Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova – have lower HIV prevalence rates than Russia. That is, a migrant now has a better chance of getting infected in Russia than in his native country.

According to experts, the current law leads to the fact that migrants already in Russia are afraid of deportation and do not report their HIV status, which leads to an even greater spread of infection.
Foreign citizens with HIV can receive treatment in Russia either for a fee through private clinics or through non-profit organizations. In the first case, it is necessary to pay for the doctor’s appointment, tests and prescribed therapy. With an undetectable viral load in the blood, a person cannot become a source of infection.
The cost of outpatient HIV treatment averages 83,084 rubles per year (data for 2021, more recent information was not found by Sever.Realii).

According to the data for the end of 2023, the incidence of HIV in Russia rose to 810.1 per 100,000 population. In 2023, 34 thousand 254 Russian citizens died, which is 0.5% less than a year earlier.
Under dispensary observation in 2023 there were 855 thousand 142 patients with this disease. Most of them (88.3%, or 755 thousand 108 people) were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). Treatment was interrupted by 42 thousand 663 patients, 41.1% of them due to death.