HIV service organizations from 11 East European and Central Asian countries came together at a meeting on migrants’ health in Moscow conducted on 27-29 April 2019 to contribute in cross border dialogue and joint actions to help people living with HIV in the region.

IOM Tajikistan and IOM Russia were also part of this regional initiative aimed at migrants’ health with special focus on HIV infection and tuberculosis. Other UN agencies and international organizations, experts and academia, as well as the Russian health authorities also participated at the meeting.  

At the meeting, IOM presented policy and international documents, as well as its experience on engaging Tajik diaspora for HIV and TB prevention, and shared results of a research on HIV prevalence among migrants conducted in Belarus last year by IOM Belarus.

The participants discussed modern migration processes, link between migration and health, barriers of a migrant’s access to health services, outreach experience of the HIV service non-governmental organizations in the Russian Federation, best practices in the countries of origin, and etc.  Based on revealed gaps participants suggested recommendations for better access of migrants to health services.

In the end, the participants adopted a joint resolution calling for immediate attention to migrants’ health and taking actions to improve the situation. The resolution will be shared with migration authorities of the countries of origin and destination to remind about responsibilities of the states for promotion of migrants’ health.