Training for Councils - No Recourse to Public Funds

posted: 21/12/2009

A full day's training for councils on their legal duties to support people and families with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) is provided by the NRPF Network along with London’s Islington Council. A significant number of migrants with HIV in NW England are subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds rules. Some NW England councils apply the rules very harshly or refuse to even accept they have any legal duty to assess people or help. Other councils do their duty well.

The training

• focuses on good practice in assessing and supporting people with NRPF
• provides an overview of relevant legislation and case-law and
• invites participants to explore other factors to be considered where immigration status impacts on entitlements to services in the UK.

Since April 2009, there have been 17 of these sessions for councils and voluntary sector organisations across the UK and the feedback is very positive.

The full details of the training days are on the NRPF microsite and any requests or enquiries can be made by email

In NW England councils vary widely in how well they perform meet their legal duties towards people with HIV under these rules.  
 

Women Asylum Seekers Charter

posted: 06/11/2009

George House Trust, like many organisations, has enthusiastically endorsed the Charter of rights of women asylum seekers.

By endorsing the Charter George House Trust has committed itself to doing what it can to promote the rights and actions in the Charter.

We will be able to do this through regional/national forums, the Detention Users Group, meetings with accommodation providers, and the staff will also be able to support this through trade union meetings.

Google group sign up
We and other supporters can also join the new Women’s Asylum Charter Google group. Joining the Google group will enable people interested in the campaign in touch with people working on similar issues and help share good practice and monitor progress. This coordination and feedback makes all our efforts more effective.

To join the Google group, please go to http://groups.google.co.uk/group/womens_asylum_charter?hl=en-GB. You will need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one. If you have any difficulties with joining the Google group, please contact charter@asylumaid.org.uk

Own website?
To help promote the Charter it would be great if you could put this link on your website www.asylumaid.org.uk

Direct link to Charter page

Dying with Food Problems

posted: 14/10/2009

Researchers in Canada have found that people taking HIV treatment who experience 'food insecurity' have an increased risk of death. The many destitute people refused asylum or leave to remain in the UK, as well as people on limited benefits and low incomes here, could face the same risk.

Food insecurity means not having enough nutritious food, or having uncertainty about obtaining food. Earlier research amongst injecting drug users taking HIV treatment in San Francisco showed that food-insecure patients were less likely to have an undetectable viral load.

Skinny and Hungry

Now researchers have found that current or former drug users in Vancouver, Canada, who are taking HIV treatment have a 50% increase in the risk of death if they experience food insecurity. The risk was especially high for people who were food insecure and underweight.
They recommend that poor patients in richer countries should receive food supplementation, and that there should be wider efforts to alleviate poverty.
 

More money or a Dietician?

Many HIV clinics in the UK have a specialist dietician who can provide information about diet. Specialist HIV social workers can also help you make sure that you have enough to eat. However the problem is largely one of poverty.
 

The government has just cut the weekly rate for a single asylum seeker over 25 who is destitute and from £42.16 to £35.13 a week from early October. At the same time, benefits for asylum seekers who are lone parents with one child are frozen at £42.16 instead of rising in line with consumer price inflation, leaving them £2 a week worse off.

Diary of an Asylum Seeker with her child scraping by on weekly asylum support from NASS.

There is more information on nutrition in NAM’s information booklet Nutrition. You can download it here.

Our HIV and Immigration Conference

posted: 18/09/2009

George House Trust is holding a one day conference on providing better support to people living with HIV who are subject to immigration controls.
 

Asylum Survivors - inside and outside the system

Frequent changes to asylum law and policy make it difficult to keep up to date and make sure you are offering people the best advice or most effective help. Living with HIV makes dealing with all these issues even more complex.
 

People caught up inside the asylum system are faced with issues such as poor housing, poverty, alienation and fear. Since the “Slough” court ruling people outside the asylum system are facing real destitution.
 

The conference aims to explain the official language and systems, and to provide workers with the information needed to effectively support people living with HIV who are inside and outside the asylum system.
 

There are creative solutions that professionals can offer people. 
 

The Conference is on Friday 4 December at George House Trust in central Manchester. 

Speakers include:

• Hermione McEwen, Senior Solicitor, Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit will talk about law in the Asylum System and how it can be used for support people with HIV
• A speaker from ASHA (Asylum Support Housing Advice, Manchester) will deal with Asylum support systems
• Daniel Murphy, Service and Development Manager of George House Trust will focus on the HIV aspects
• Richard Copson, solicitor from Glasiers will talk about the implications of the Slough court ruling

Cost and bookings

Cost is £40 for voluntary sector organisations, and £60 for the statutory sector.
If you would like to come but are unable to pay the fee please contact Daniel

To book a place on this course please email Nathan
For more information, or specific access / disability requirements please email Daniel Murphy or ring 0161 274 4499 and ask for him.
 

The Conference will be at our building in Ardwick - ten minutes walk from Piccadilly station and just two or three stops by bus from the city centre. 77 Ardwick Green North, Manchester, M12 6FX Map

Booking Form - please download and use this

Using HIV Detention and Removal Guidelines

posted: 01/09/2009

Advice on how to make full use of the NAT-British HIV Association (BHIVA) new guidelines on 'Detention, Removal and People Living with HIV' has been circulated by Medical Justice. Migrants living with HIV should not be removed if this breaks these guidelines. Using the guidelines has halted some recent removal attempts.

A number of removals of HIV+ detainees that Medical Justice are involved with have been stopped because the NAT and BHIVA guidelines were breached.

Below Medical Justice explains how to help someone living with HIV by using the guidelines.

The new NAT-BHIVA guidelines (page 13) state that;

• 3 months supply of anti-retroviral medication should be supplied to people with HIV on removal
• they should also be given a letter for their future treating physicians, and
• contact details of trusted HIV support organisations in the country the detainee is being removed to.

Page 12 of the guidelines states that

'Upon notification that an HIV positive detainee is to be removed, IRC [immigration removal centre] healthcare staff should inform the local HIV specialist of the detainee's pending removal and ensure the detainee is provided with sufficient medication. Normal NHS clinical practice is to dispense three months' supply of ARV medication. This will cover detainees during the removal process and arrival in their destination country.'

In the case of Yarl's Wood, the local clinic is Bridge House GUM clinic, at Bedford Hospital, 01234 792146.

Less than three months medication?

These guidelines are endorsed by Dr Celia Grummit of the IRC Healthcare Steering Group (see page 4 of the guidelines). Given her position, and the Secretary of State's avowed policy to provide NHS equivalent care to immigration detainees (see Home Office Operating Standards Manual for IRCs), if a person facing removal has not been provided with 3 months medication, removal might be stopped on the basis that the guidelines have been breached.

Need to start treatment?

If it is clear that someone needs to start anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment but cannot do so before removal (e.g. because the necessary resistance tests have not been done yet), legal representatives might be able to make representations to the effect that the person should not be removed until it is possible to provide them with 3 months appropriate anti-retroviral medication.

Indications that someone may need to start on ARVs may include -

• the person is HIV+,
• has a low CD4 count,
• has a letter from a specialist that they need or may need ARVs (this could include a letter following their HIV diagnosis), or
• they have been on ARVs in the past.

Tests have to be done before someone is started on ARVs.

Stopping Removals that Breach the Guidelines

What you can do when someone is scheduled to be removed in breach of the guidelines ;

• Call up the local specialist clinic (listed in the BHIVA guidelines p 20-21) and find out whether they have been informed of the removal and whether they are supplying 3 months of appropriate medications.
• If they have not been informed and can't provide the necessary medication, provide the detainee's legal representative with a copy of the BHIVA guidelines and information on the person's medical condition and possible complications, and ask if legal representations can be made.
• If there is no legal representative or the legal representative is not able/willing to make epresentations on the basis of the BHIVA guidelines, you could contact the MP (either the MP in whose constituency the detainee was living prior to detention or the MP in whose constituency the detention centre is) and/or the detainee could directly make their own representations to the responsible home office caseworker.

Fitness to travel / is the detainee medically stable?

Page 10 of the guidelines says "At least 95% adherence to treatment is required , as even one or two missed doses can seriously compromise both the efficacy of therapy and lead to drug resistance. This means missing no more than one dose a month if a detainee is taking once-daily therapy, or two doses a month if a detainee is taking twice daily therapy. IRC healthcare staff should ensure that every detainee in need gets their medication each day."

If medication has been missed then removal may need to be delayed until it has been established that the medication is still effective.

Page 13 says "Final judgement as to whether an HIV positive detainee is medically stable and is fit to travel must be determined on a case-by-case basis and should always rest with the IRC GP in consultation with HIV specialists." Here are some of the main medical issues that should be considered -

• the person is pregnant or has given birth less than six months previously
• the person is awaiting an HIV test result or appropriate post-test counselling and a baseline assessment to clarify clinical condition
• the person has had a recent, new HIV diagnosis, or having just started ARV therapy or a new drug regime
• the person has a co-infection with another sexually transmitted infection or tuberculosis
• the person has co-existing mental health issues
• there are ongoing medical complications

Referring a case to Medical Justice / getting advice from Medical Justice

Please complete a referral form (a link to which can be found at the bottom of the About making referrals to Medical Justice webpage). Please note that making a referral means you are making a commitment to gather all necessary information and progress the case yourself as far as possible.

So you must ensure that you ascertain all relevant information about the detainee mentioned in these 'using the BHIVA guidelines' and include it in the referral form.

email contact   

phone 07807 726546

Note on children detained with an HIV+ parent
Some removals of families with a parent who is HIV+ have been stopped by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Medical Justice has no information on ECHR's basis on stopping these removals, if they are stopping all such removals, or for how long ECHR may stop such removals. You may want to contact ECHR or make an application to ECHR about such removals.

Medical Justice does not give immigration advice
Medical Justice is not qualified to give immigration advice and suggests that immigration advice is always sought in every case from a qualified advisor.

This advice on using the BHIVA guidelines is from Fadiga & Co
Advice is available from Hani Zubeidi at Fadiga & Co 0208 673 6699