Health of migrants have not been given due importance in national policies on health and migrants. Awareness and coordination among various ministries is required in this connection.

This was said by the guests at a sharing meeting on the assessment of HIV/AIDS knowledge, practice and services for migrant workers, orgsanised in Dhaka by International Organization for Migration (IOM). They also said, overall awareness and safe sexual practice is low in society, so we should not identify and blame migrants as a special risk group.

IOM organized the meeting to share the findings from a situation assessment on the knowledge, practices and services related to HIV/AIDS among overseas migrant workers from Bangladesh. A total of 188 labour migrants both men and women including departing and returned migrant workers participated in the survey. 

 The situation assessment released today was conducted and presented by Mr. Shakirul Islam, Chairman of a migrants’ organization OKUP. The assessment was supported by UNAIDS.  

According to the survey, many of the Bangladeshi migrant workers are young and unmarried when they leave the country. Both age and their marital status influence migrants to engage in behaviour that can make them prone to HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, migrants have poor knowledge and skills to protect themselves from the dangers of HIV/AIDS.  

The survey data show that 57% of departing and 58% of returned migrants know nothing about sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Among the departing migrants, 30% male and 34% female do not know about HIV/AIDS while 79% of returnee migrants have no knowledge of the modes of HIV transmission.  

Data show that 11% of returnee male migrants had unprotected sexual relations with girl friends and 21% had unprotected penetrative sex with commercial sex workers during their stay abroad. On the other hand, 5% returnee female migrants had unprotected sexual relations with co-workers or boy friends. But 51% returnee migrants both male and female had never used condoms during their sexual intercourse abroad.  

Only 4% of returnee male migrants used condoms during their last penetrative sex abroad. About 40% of departing migrants both male and female reported that they had unprotected extramarital sexual relations with opposite partners.  

It was found that 11% of returnee migrants were infected with sexually transmitted diseases, 4% of them women migrants. Survey data also show that only 2 percent of returnee migrants received formal training or orientation on HIV/AIDS before migration. The majority of migrants both departing (71%) and returnees (67%), have gained a general idea on HIV from radio/television. Other major informal sources of HIV/AIDS and STD information are friends/peers, leaflets/booklets etc. Only 4% of departing migrants have learnt about HIV/AIDS and STDs from NGO training.  

‘HIV education and services alongwith situation monitoring for overseas labour migrants need to be mainstreamed and decentralized’, said Ms. Rabab Fatima of IOM. She also said we should try to utilize regional initiatives on migration and HIV/AIDS too to address the issue and not only in Bangladesh.   

The UNAIDS representative in Dhaka Dr. Salil Panakadan said that AIDS awareness for migrants should be both in host and destination countries.  

In his speech as the Chief Guest, Dr. Zafar Ahmed Khan, Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment said, although this Ministry is small, the contributions of the migrants at a national level is immense. So importance should be given to migrants’ welfare including their health issues.  

The Line Director of National AIDS STD Programme and Safe Blood Transfusion Programme Dr. Mohd. Ali Belal in his speech as the Special Guest said, information sessions and trainings on HIV/AIDS for migrants should be made mandatory.  

The government representatives and representatives of national-international organizations at the meeting resonated the comments and said although the assessment is in a small scale, it is a first time look at the real scenario. They stressed on more such studies and felt that concrete interventions can be planned based on such assessments.   

For more information please contact Asif Munier or Farhana Chowdhury at IOM Dhaka. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; Tel. +880.2.988.9765