Dear editor,
As a South African living in Korea, and coming from a country where HIV has reached pandemic status, I was particularly interested in your article on the immigration requirements for an E-2 visa.
Let me start by stating that I believe the issues of drug screening and HIV testing to be completely separate. Whereas the use of narcotics is a criminal offense, being HIV positive is not. There is arguably merit in drug screening.
I can state from experience that any government in the world should take the threat of HIV spread very seriously, as should any citizen of the world. The fear that drives the government to conduct HIV test on foreigners is a completely reasonable fear.
However, I personally find HIV testing unethical, be it constitutional or not. The emotional hysteria caused by the fear of HIV causes harm far greater than the disease ever could.
Persons living with HIV are socially ostracized, face prejudice from all sides and risk losing their livelihood, as the immigration requirements in this case indicate. Remember that we are talking about healthy, functioning members of your community, and that HIV doesn't spread like the flu.
Assumptions concerning the sexual behavior of foreigners, who are a heterogeneous group of people with different values, cultures and traditions, are beside the point. It takes two to tango.
More importantly, one can only consider the folly of legalizing the violation of the Constitution in the name of protecting your people. Only a small percentage of HIV positive persons living in Korea are foreign.
Where will you deport the Koreans to? Will you continue to enforce the constitutional rights of your people, and exclusively violate those of foreign descent?
The constitution protects the people and should be sacrosanct. The only people who are threatened by the failure to uphold the constitution are the Korean people.
By all means take the threat of HIV very, very seriously. But consider the power that lies in education, health-care and community upliftment as opposed to the sterile rewards of protectionism.
Nikola Haupt