Foul contagion spread

I'm quite often contacted by expats living with HIV in Indonesia. Understandably, most are worried about their future here; will they suddenly find themselves person non grata? Even more so for those who have suffered from Singapore's draconian laws, see my comments in Avoid Singapore.

Just had an E-mail from one who had just lighted on a report about Magic Johnson being denied entry back in 1994. This notes that people with contagious diseases can be banned. In fact, HIV is not (in theory) considered a contagious disease under law No. 4 of 1984 on 'wabah' (contagious epidemics), for which reason we always caution against the application of the term 'wabah' to HIV.

But of course that's not the point. If the government does not wants to terminate our stays, they can always make 'difficulties' when visas or work permits need to be extended. This is what happened in the mid 90's to the infamous Thai fishermen who are always blamed for the AIDS epidemic in Papua. But frankly it's not very likely to happen to an expat professional.

However, my correspondent also noted that he came across one Indonesian consulate which require "some sort of 'vaccination' document in triplicate for Hep B and HIV it says (stupidly) in order for foreigners to apply for a long stay pass.' He noted 'Probably best to let a sleeping dog lay', so I'll not quote the location.

Let's hope that's not the shape of things to come.

Babé