The Survey Report of Migrant Workers' AIDS Knowledge, Attitude and Practice in Hong Kong 2003

Research showed that migration and mobility play important roles in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As noted in the UNAIDS Technical Update on Migration and HIV/AIDS, population movement increases the speed of HIV transmission from one locality to another. According to the 2001 Population Census, a total number of 343,950 Non-Chinese lived in Hong Kong. The majority of them were Filipinos (142,556); others were from Indonesia (50,494), India (14,342), Thailand (14,342), Nepal (12,564), Pakistan (11,017), and the rest from Japan, Britain and Sri-Lanka. Many of them are females employed as domestic helpers for Hong Kong families. Although not all migrants or people on the move face special risk of HIV infection, there is still a definite link between mobility and AIDS. The link can be evident in most parts of the world, for instance, of the Filipinos reported to be living with HIV/AIDS, 28% are workers who have returned home after working in other countries. In Bangladesh, about 41% of HIV positive carriers have been migrant workers.