Officials are preparing a fresh set of guidelines for GPs, which would stipulate that people whose asylum cases have been rejected, or who have not yet submitted an application to the Home Office, must not be given ‘routine’ care, including drugs therapy. Refugees are allowed emergency treatment only if they fall ill with Aids symptoms and are sent to casualty departments.

The Observer has learnt that there have been several cases in the past three months of clinicians
having to persuade hospital managers to allow them to treat pregnant women asylum seekers who have HIV.

Under the April guidelines, hospitals can refuse to give women the treatment if the Home Office has refused them leave to remain in Britain. But a decision not to give them the drugs would leave their unborn children with a 30 per cent chance of developing the disease.

Fury at ban on HIV help for refugees, The observer, 08 August 2004

This is just sickening. The sheer depravity of witholding medical treatments from people, of sending
them to their death just because of their legal status. There is no way anyone could excuse this
monstrous policy. Sure, the usual suspects will try and rationalise it by presenting it as a cost saving
measure, preventing those evil refugees from “sponging off the NHS”, or as a measure to make the UK less popular as a destination for refugees, but in reality it will just cause more human suffering without
achieving anything.

What I’m worried about is, since my own government seems honourbound to copy the worst aspects of UK and US policies, they will try and introduce this here as well…