International AIDS organizations say people from Africa, South America and Asia planning to attend a major conference in Montreal are still struggling to get visas.
Last week, nearly 250 organizations around the world sent a joint letter to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser asking him to take steps to ensure that participants can attend the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2022).
Tinashe Rufurwadzo of Y+Global, an international HIV-positive youth organization, says her organization’s board chairman and another employee were denied visas to attend the conference.
Mr. Rufurwadzo says young people on the African continent must be able to meaningfully participate in the conference, not just be represented by images in PowerPoint presentations.
Tumie Komanyane, who runs several programs for the international nongovernmental organization Frontline AIDS in South Africa, says the groups she works with were planning to help more than a dozen young people attend the conference, but they decided not to even bother to apply for ten visas after the first four applications were rejected.
Conference organizers have previously called delays and visa denials a potential disaster for the event.
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