Cheaper to treat illegal immigrants

Excluding illegal immigrants from sexual health services is far costlier in the long run to society than allowing them access, Family Planning Association (FPA) head Prof Rose-Marie Antoine said while presenting the FPA’s Annual Report on Tuesday at Central Bank Auditorium in Port of Spain.

She also urged that youngsters be allowed to access sexual and reproductive health services and education without parental consent so as to reflect Caribbean realities of early onset of sexual activity. Urging healthcare for undocumented immigrants in TT, Antoine said human rights are universal and are not lost simply by relocation.

She bemoaned that TT, amidst proposals of a National Health ID Card, seems to be following the countries that are taking a Trumpian approach of reducing universal health coverage, unlike the British model.

“Yet the public health risks and costs in terms of HIV, STDs, unwanted pregnancies that attach if we do not secure sexual and reproductive rights for undocumented persons far outweigh the costs for providing them. What is the cost to the public purse when an undocumented person is HIV positive, is not tested or treated, and transmits to others, likely as a sex workers, or gets it from a client?”

Antoine said this is not an abstract question, as TT is increasing offering refuge formally or informally to neighbours from Venezuela and Caricom.”We need to view this phenomenon as a public health issue and a right to health issue and be proactive. Such persons need access to sexual and reproductive services.”

Antoine lamented that often women prosecuted as prostitutes were in fact human-trafficking victims in need of assistance. “In some cases these were mere girls, abandoned, living on the street, typically poor, black women, consequently subject to double discrimination.”

Urging sex education for youngsters, Antoine said outdated laws which undermine treatment end up harming youth by validating high rates of unprotected sexual activity. “Such laws are poor examples of social engineering and are disconnected with the reality of sexuality, and sexual and reproductive attitudes and practices in the region.

“Approximately 20 per cent of women in the Caribbean have had at least one child by age 19, with a considerable percentage of adolescent girls even giving birth before age 15.” She said a study of 16,000 adolescents in nine countries found 34 percent having sex before age 19. Of these, 63 percent had their debut before age 12.