Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - May 28, 2006
Rowan Philp

The island's governor will decide this week whether to bar South Africans found to be HIV-positive from entering that isolated world - because residents believe lonely South African workers will bring Aids to the island.

South African human rights experts have called it "blatant discrimination".

Famous as the place where French emperor Napoleon died, the island of 5600 inhabitants exploded into a rare controversy after it was learned that a South African company would be building its first airport. Three consortiums are in the running.

Around 300 South African men are set to live on the island for three years from next year, increasing the adult population by about 5%.

Currently, St Helena, a British territory 1600km off the coast of Angola, has no transport link with the outside world beyond a weekly ship visit from Cape Town, and there have been no reported cases of HIV or tuberculosis there.

In a riotous community meeting, residents - who call themselves "Saints" - complained that scores of HIV-positive South Africans would, by next year, be "over-paid, over-sexed, and over here".

Residents said streetwise and cash-flush men were likely to turn the heads of young island women, and possibly create a deadly "infestation".

Last month, Britain's Department of International Development told St Helena's executive council that excluding HIV-positive workers would be discriminatory, costly and against South African law.

The department, which is funding the airport project, sent a delegation and an international Aids specialist to try to convince residents that responsible behaviour could limit the risk.

An exasperated Professor Michael Adler, adviser to the British government and the World Health Organisation, told a packed meeting that a single HIV test was not conclusive. He asked if they would rather that "the workers don't come at all?"

"Yes! Stop them from coming to the island!" they shouted.

They voted for a proposal for exclusion to be lodged with the executive council.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, St Helena Governor Michael Clancy revealed that barring HIV-positive South African workers was "very much on the table", in a decision due for his signature this week.

He said a ruling had to be made because allowing one of the bidding South African companies to find a voluntary solution - such as offering a guaranteed HIV-free workforce - would grant it "an unfair advantage".

Clancy acknowledged that while the best solution lay in "proper education and behaviour", he said the unique history and geography of St Helena made the decision on how to regulate the workers "complex and difficult".

"When it became known that ... it was South African workers who would likely be brought in there was very vocal concern about the high incidence of HIV in Southern Africa and the effect of infections on a small, isolated population like ours.

"But if we do decide to screen and exclude HIV-positive workers, we couldn't expect companies to screen staff in South Africa, because it's against the law there - and the delays and expense of doing it here or elsewhere would be terrible. Also, there is the issue of their human rights. It will be a difficult decision, but it is ours to make."

But resident Julian Cairns-Wicks, 77, was unequivocal: "Three hundred male construction workers from South Africa - where the labour force infection rate is 25% to 33% - will come here without being tested and stay for three years without their girlfriends or wives, and they'll be earning better wages than most people on the island.

"They will want a little something on the side, and some of our girls will fall for it. HIV - which has never been here - will get into our population and spread very quickly. That cannot be allowed."

Jody Kollapen, a South African Human Rights Commissioner, said the reaction was outrageous: "The governor of St Helena should be asked this question: when his citizens return from a visit to South Africa will they be forced to undergo testing for HIV? It is an entirely discriminatory notion, and the British government, which is financing this airport, will be complicit if this decision is made."

Greg Heale, director of business development for one of the firms vying for the contract, said employees would not be "forced" into HIV testing, but said: "It is common practice for SA contractors to have their employees medically screened before working abroad, both in the interests of the host country and to ensure the employee himself is not put at risk in terms of local medical support."

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