Deportation ruling angers AIDS activists

AIDS activists are concerned that hundreds of HIV-positive people could be sent back to Africa after a decision by Britain's Home Office allowing their deportation.

Ruth Bundey, a British solicitor representing people living with HIV/AIDS in the UK, has accused the government of hypocrisy for depriving these individuals of access to life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs.

She told the local Independent newspaper: "On the one hand [the government] is extending monetary aid to Africa to help 'make poverty history'; simultaneously, though, it is throwing out people who have little hope of medical treatment in their home countries and are therefore being sent home to die."

Home Office officials have argued that allowing HIV-positive immigrants to stay on medical grounds risked attracting more so-called "health tourists" to Britain.