At least 318 HIV-positive foreigners who have been expelled from Taiwan may be allow to re-enter on humanitarian grounds, a support group for HIV and AIDS patients said yesterday.
The Department of Health (DOH) will hold a meeting today to decide on a Malaysian man's appeal of his expulsion order. The man, married to a Taiwanese woman, was expelled in 1998 after he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The DOH will not announce the meeting's decision until next April, but the Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association (PRAA) said the expulsion order will be overturned.
"The DOH says it will review expelled foreigners' appeals on a case-by-case basis, but we hope this will open the door for other expelled foreigners to re-enter Taiwan," Lin Yi-hui, a PRAA social worker, said.
According to the AIDS Prevention Bill, HIV-positive foreigners must leave Taiwan and are not allowed to re-enter the country.
PRAA calls the law discriminatory, saying foreigners with HIV, especially those who are married to Taiwanese, have the right to live and work in Taiwan.
According to the DOH, Taiwan has expelled 318 HIV-infected foreigners, including 143 Thais, 26 Americans and 20 Cambodians.
But PRAA said the number of foreigners banned from re-entry is much higher because some foreigners left Taiwan voluntarily after testing positive for HIV but customs blacklisted their names.
The country has reported 3,786 cases of HIV, of which 1,165 people have developed AIDS and 727 have died.
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