Travellers face STD dilemma
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Australian travellers face STD dilemma
Online visa application forms implemented by the US this month force red-faced tourists to declare common conditions likes gonorrhoea and syphilis before they leave Australia.
More than 900 people were denied admission to the US in 2007 due to communicable diseases.
A travel ban on people with HIV has been lifted by Congress, but the condition still needs to be declared.
There are now fears travellers will lie rather than face the humiliation of revealing their illness - and a listing on the US immigration department’s records.
Chief Executive Officer of the AIDS Council of New South Wales Stevie Clayton said the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) was "an invasion of privacy".
"Many people decide not to disclose their status when travelling to the US, some decide not to risk it and don’t travel to the US because they don’t want to disclose their status or lie," he said.
"It's crazy."
National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research figures show more than 51,000 Australians suffer communicable diseases and could be affected by the laws.
Of the 900 travellers knocked back in 2007, 478 later received waivers from the US government, allowing them entry, statistics from the US State Department show. But almost 500 remained locked out.
Twelve other countries around the world have similar bans, including Iraq, South Korea and, until recently, China.
A spokesperson for the US Consulate in Australia confirmed the immigration laws prevent people with communicable diseases from travelling to the US unless a waiver of inadmissibility is granted.
“The Immigration and Nationality Act Section 212(a) states that any visitor, who is determined to have a disease of public health significance, as defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, is inadmissible to the United States,” the spokesperson said.
“The requirement of declaring HIV status has not been dropped
The DHS is amending its regulations to provide, on a limited and categorical basis, a more streamlined process for non-immigrant aliens infected with the human immunodeficiency virus to enter the United States as visitors on temporary visas for up to 30 days.”
Visitors to Australia do not have to declare STDs, but they have to declare HIV status.
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