Rufurwadzo said representatives of populations most at risk of HIV – such as people who inject drugs, transgender women, sex workers and gay men – should be able to participate, as should teenage girls, who are increasingly affected by HIV.
If people from the hardest-hit countries aren’t able to attend, he said he doesn’t know how realistic the learning at the conference will be.
While those whose applications were rejected will be able to attend the conference virtually, Rufurwadzo said he will not allow the same level of participation. He also said that young people, especially those from rural areas, may not have stable access to the internet.
Last week, nearly 250 organizations from around the world sent a joint letter to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser calling on him to take action to ensure participants can attend the international AIDS conference.
Aidan Strickland, a spokesman for Fraser, said in response to earlier questions from The Canadian Press that the department is working closely with event organizers and that applications “have been evaluated in a timely manner.”
“While we cannot comment on the admissibility of any particular individual, we can say that, in general, all visitors to Canada must meet the requirements for temporary residence in Canada as set out in the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” said Strickland in an email. “All applications from around the world are evaluated equally against the same criteria.”
Javier Bellocq, an Argentine who runs a community journalism program called the Key Correspondent Team that focuses on people living with HIV and high-risk groups, said from the stories he’s heard, it appears that each Canadian consulate applies different rules.
In some places, he said, applicants were asked to pay for medical tests as part of the visa process.
“The conference, in theory, arranged with the Canadian government that there would be no medical examinations, but there are, there are many medical examinations.”
Of a group of 40 Argentines, including Belloc, who plan to participate in pre-conference activities, only two have received visas so far, he said.
Tumie Komanyane, who runs programs for international NGO Frontline AIDS in South Africa, said groups she works with planned to help more than a dozen young people attend the conference, but decided not to even bother applying for 10 visas after the first four applications. turned down.
Komanyane said she knows other young people from the region, including some who had scholarships to attend the conference sponsored by the Canadian government, who had their visa applications rejected.
“It’s incoherent,” she said in an interview Saturday. “With the steps Africa is taking on HIV, all the lessons and evidence that could come directly from the beneficiaries will be lost.”
While he works with young people, he said, he doesn’t want to talk about them.
“They have agency, they have a voice, and they shouldn’t be represented by people like me. They should be able to go and share what this job means to them,” he said.
Belloc said he is not worried about himself, noting that the Argentine passport is relatively strong and that he has been a professional traveling internationally for more than 30 years. But he worries about people from countries with fewer passport privileges and members of marginalized groups who are at high risk of HIV.
With pre-conference events starting in just over three weeks, he said, “time is not on our side.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 2, 2022.
Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press
title: “People Planning To Attend Aids Conference In Montreal Still Struggle To Get Visas " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-11” author: “Robert Irving”
MONTREAL — International AIDS organizations say people from Africa, South America and Asia who plan to attend a major AIDS conference in Montreal are still struggling to get visas from the Canadian government.
The groups say a growing number of activists — including some who were set to speak at the conference starting at the end of the month — are being denied visa applications, often on the grounds that the Canadian government doesn’t believe they will return home after the event.
Tinashe Rufurwadzo, director of programmes, management and governance at Y+ Global, an international HIV+ youth organisation, said the chairman of his organisation’s board and another of its staff, based in Malawi and Kenya, are among the young of activists who have been refused visas to participate in the conference.
He said both have traveled extensively to speak at AIDS-related events.
“Personally, I am sick and tired of seeing young people from Africa depicted mostly on PowerPoint slides as pictures, as pictures on banners, as footnotes in case studies. Why can’t we have them at conferences to share experiences them about what exactly is going on?” he said in an interview on Friday.
Rufurwadzo said representatives of populations most at risk of HIV — such as people who inject drugs, transgender women, sex workers and gay men — should be able to participate, as should teenage girls. who are increasingly affected by HIV.
If people from the hardest-hit countries aren’t able to attend, he said he doesn’t know how realistic the learning at the conference will be.
While those whose applications were rejected will be able to attend the conference virtually, Rufurwadzo said he will not allow the same level of participation. He also said that young people, especially those from rural areas, may not have stable access to the internet.
Last week, nearly 250 organizations from around the world sent a joint letter to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser calling on him to take action to ensure participants can attend the international AIDS conference.
Aidan Strickland, a spokesman for Fraser, said in response to earlier questions from The Canadian Press that the department is working closely with event organizers and that applications “have been evaluated in a timely manner.”
“While we cannot comment on the admissibility of any particular individual, we can say that, in general, all visitors to Canada must meet the requirements for temporary residence in Canada as set out in the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” said Strickland in an email. “All applications from around the world are evaluated equally against the same criteria.”
Javier Bellocq, an Argentine who runs a community journalism program called the Key Correspondent Team that focuses on people living with HIV and high-risk groups, said from the stories he’s heard, it appears that each Canadian consulate applies different rules.
In some places, he said, applicants were asked to pay for medical tests as part of the visa process.
“The conference, in theory, arranged with the Canadian government that there would be no medical examinations, but there are, there are many medical examinations.”
Of a group of 40 Argentines, including Belloc, who plan to participate in pre-conference activities, only two have received visas so far, he said.
Tumie Komanyane, who runs programs for international NGO Frontline AIDS in South Africa, said groups she works with planned to help more than a dozen young people attend the conference, but decided not to even bother applying for 10 visas after the first four applications. turned down.
Komanyane said she knows other young people from the region, including some who had scholarships to attend the conference sponsored by the Canadian government, who had their visa applications rejected.
“It’s incoherent,” she said in an interview Saturday. “With the steps Africa is taking on HIV, all the lessons and evidence that could come directly from the beneficiaries will be lost.”
While he works with young people, he said, he doesn’t want to talk about them.
“They have agency, they have a voice, and they shouldn’t be represented by people like me. They should be able to go and share what this project means to them,” he said.
Belloc said he is not worried about himself, noting that the Argentine passport is relatively strong and that he has been a professional traveling internationally for more than 30 years. But he worries about people from countries with fewer passport privileges and members of marginalized groups who are at high risk of HIV.
With pre-conference events starting in just over three weeks, he said, “time is not on our side.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 2, 2022.
Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press
