Migration and population mobility are on the increase around the globe. At the start of the twenty-first century, one out of every 35 persons worldwide is an international migrant [World Migration Report, 2003, IOM]. These phenomena arise from myriad push and pull factors, including globalization, improvement of transportation and communications systems, technology development, and the vast and pervasive economic and social disparities that continue to exist across the world. Other forces such as political turmoil/ repression, environmental degradation, the spread of disease, and human exploitation/trafficking also contribute significantly to growing international and internal population movement.

In the South-East Asian countries and southern provinces of China, a major factor stimulating population movement is the rapidly increasing level of political and economic cooperation in the region. This is resulting in more and more people leaving their homes in search of business and job opportunities elsewhere, both within their own countries and abroad.

Whatever the reason for the movement of human resources, when people head off to reside or settle in new locations, they generally leave their social safety nets and security behind. Migrants and mobile people (MMPs) traveling to new, unfamiliar locations often without their families, living in duress, fighting loneliness, with a newfound freedom and access to disposable income, are more prone to engage in behaviours that make them vulnerable to sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV. They are also sometimes exploited, abused and confronted with other hardships that may lead (especially women) to engage in transactional sex, sex for survival, rape, etc increasing the risk of STI and HIV infection.

The vulnerability of MMPs increases due to the absence of legal and social status and migrant-friendly services. Moreover, there are severe communications barriers and problems encountered in accessing “migrant-friendly” health information, services and commodities (such as condoms), both in transit and at their destinations in a language they understand. This is particularly true for undocumented migrants, who comprise 40-50 percent of cross-border MMPs and cross-border minority populations. Host countries are usually very reluctant to provide health and welfare services to migrants.

Economic Considerations versus Human Rights: A Real World Phenomenon

Policy makers continue to be strongly influenced by public opinion about migrants. The public, in turn, is often influenced by a biased media expounding negatively on “uncontrolled flows” of asylum-seekers, migrant-related criminal activities, and problems of integrating immigrants with local communities. Of course, public perceptions may reflect real issues and real problems, but they also are subject to a great variety of influences and prejudices. People may alter their views according to high or low economic cycles but also in response to the information and political messages from the authorities. In this regard, one of the problems in the region is that many national governments lack clear policies for migrant populations, and therefore frequently deliver mixed messages to the general public. Quite often, the national policies reflect an approach to migrants which depicts them more as economic tools than real people with human needs.

Studies reveal that many MMPs who are not well informed of their rights and migration process (where they may be going, type of work they will be engaging into, etc.) are at greater risk of acquiring HIV infection than people who remain at home. If migrant workers contract HIV infection, they will generally face greater problems accessing health and social services than people from the host country. It will also be more difficult for them to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation, since most of them are illegal migrants and thence they are not in a position to form their own unions or committees.