Statement to the Swiss and international media

Tuesday, 30 June 1998
12th World AIDS Conference
Press Centre

See also : Letter from Mukami McCrum

Statement to the Swiss and international media International Working Group on Immigration Rights and HIV

The Swiss government wants to deport Mister M. Deportation, for people facing HIV, is the last stop in a long chain from discrimination to denial of treatment. Deportation is torture. It is the negation of human rights. For Third World people facing HIV, deportation is a death sentence.

Now the government have stated they will force him on the plane with a small suitcase containing 12 months combination therapy. Recently, the government stated publicly that they will continue to send treatment after a year has expired.

Is this ’Bridging the Gap’ ? No, because combination therapy requires a medical infrastructure (viral load testing, CD4 count, etc), medical attention and expertise, psychological counselling, and a social setting which do not exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We cannot accept that Mister M be turned, against his will, into a guinea pig for Swiss AIDS development policy of sending ’the pills’ to a small group of individuals in the South, selected on the basis of deportation. Such practice, which at first appears to be a benevolent one, is in fact a violation of human rights. It is both irrational and dangerous, and will not help improve access to treatment for people in the South.

Above all, we must listen to what Mr M is saying. And come what may, Mister M wants to stay. He has not been to his home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo for 18 years. All of his ties are here, in Switzerland. His life is here, in the North. He is very much part of this society - he has worked, lived, and started treatment here. It is in Switzerland that he discovered his HIV status. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to family and private life.

We have seen his health deteriorate since 22 June 1998, the day on which his appeal to stay here was rejected by the Commission suisse de recours en matière d’asile. We are fighting Mister M’s deportation because he is telling us that the prospect of deportation is driving him mad and making him sick.

Some feel that this is not a ’good’ case because in 1996 Mister M was sent to prison. HIV is not a crime, yet he was jailed by the unjust Swiss law which criminalises HIV transmission. HIV is not a crime, and prison followed by deportation is a Double Punishment - no Swiss will ever face deportation.

We believe that, above all, stopping Mr M’s deportation is a human rights issue. The European Commission of Human Rights on 15 October 1996 stated in a similar case that the protection granted by article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights cannot be diminished because someone has committed a ’crime’ or because someone is or was undocumented (No One Is Illegal).

In a 2 May 1997 decision (Mr D vs. United Kingdom), the European Court of Human Rights recognised that a man living with HIV/AIDS, convicted of a cocaine trafficking-related offence, should not be deported because to do so would constitute a violation of article 3 of the Convention.

The Swiss government could, at any moment, take a stand in favour of Mr M’s human rights and suspend his deportation. We have asked that Mr M, with his lawyer and with the Working Group, be allowed to state his case to Mrs Dreifuss, Cheffe du Départment fédéral de l’Intérieur (the ministry which deals with public health). We believe that a solution is still possible if Mrs Dreifuss were willing to argue the case before Mr Arnold Koller, Chef du Département fédéral de Justice et Police who is the one who will ultimate decide what happens.

For more information about this case : call +41 22 800 3040 or e-mail info@survivreausida.net