Free ARV�s For Foreign Inmates
Mpho Mokwape | Monday August 25, 2014 17:36
He said government’s refusal to offer foreign inmates the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) treatment was irrational adding that it also posed a danger to citizen inmates. “The refusal to provide HAART to the inmates is a breach of the duty owed to them by the government, to be provided with basic health care services and that the withholding of treatment will enable their HIV to replicate and relegate to terminal stage,” he said.
He explained that it was not reasonably justified that the provision of life saving medication like HAART be withheld. He pointed out that the ultimate result was that the groups of people deprived of treatment become more infectious to others or died; creating a Catch 22 situation that could have been long avoided.
Sechele further noted that the inmates’ expert had stated that withholding HAART makes HIV positive inmates vulnerable to opportunistic infections including tuberculosis, which is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV/AIDS. “The expert submitted that pulmonary TB spreads through transmission of airborne droplets. Denying HIV positive inmates HARRT not only exposes them to premature death but increases the likelihood of HIV transmission and other life threatening contagious infections regardless of their HIV status or nationality,” he said.
Sechele noted that it’s impermissible for government to indirectly extend the limits of punishment by withholding certain services to which inmates are lawfully entitled to on account of their status as non-citizen inmates.
He pointed out that government’s position also cast doubt over its claim that they are unable to provide treatment to non-citizen inmates, adding that it was an international obligation that the country provides treatment.
“First the government decries lack of financial resources and secondly, they raise a moral argument to the effect that the applicants are convicted criminals who should not benefit from their crime by the provision of HAART,” he said.
He added that government’s argument omitted that incarceration and deprivation of liberty was all that was substrated from the inmates’ constitutional rights. He added that imprisonment equaled all inmates regardless of their status and place of origin therefore it was imperative for the treatment to cover all inmates.
Earlier this year, two Zimbabwean prisoners assisted by BONELA, sued government for refusing to provide them with free ARVs. At the time, BONELA argued that by denying foreign inmates ARV treatment, government was violating their constitutional right to equality, dignity and non-discrimination.
BONELA also accused government of adopting a contradictory stance as it refused to provide foreign inmates with ARVs but gave them free treatment for opportunistic diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia. They had also argued that refusing to provide foreign inmates with ARVs puts other inmates at risk of re-infection that could culminate in them being resistant to ARV treatment.
However, the government counter-argued that it was expensive to provide foreign inmates with ARVs. They also stated that they are working under a Presidential Directive Order issued in 2010, which doesn’t allow provision of ARV’s to foreign inmates.