Visa problems ahead of International AIDS Conference in Munich

Delays in visa processing at German embassies put the participation of people from countries of the global South and of people from vulnerable communities in jeopardy. Deutsche Aidshilfe is now calling for political action.

The conference of the International AIDS Society IAS is the world's largest congress on scientific, socio-political and civic aspects of HIV. More than 15,000 scientists, doctors, other health care professionals and activists from over 175 countries are expected to attend #AIDS2024 in Munich from July 22 to 26, 2024.

However, several activists have been reporting that the slow processing of tourist visa applications at German embassies is putting their participation in jeopardy.

Dr Frank Mugisha, internationally acclaimed LGBTIQ* activist from Uganda, posted on X (formerly Twitter): "Unfortunately, many people from developing countries and vulnerable communities will miss this important conference due to visa issues. When will inequalities end? #AIDS2024".

The German government and German embassies must ensure the participation of all attendees

The City of Munich's candidature to host the conference was supported by Deutsche AIDS-Stiftung, Münchner Aids-Hilfe and Deutsche Aidshilfe (DAH), among others. (Transparency notice: Deutsche Aidshilfe is a media partner of #AIDS2024.)

"Germany must ensure that representatives from all regions of the world and from all important key populations are granted a visa to attend the conference, whether they are drug users or sex workers," emphasised Sasha Gurinova, DAH International Affairs Officer, at the time.

At the 2022 World AIDS Conference in Montréal, the Canadian authorities delayed or even refused visas to many delegates from African countries.

"Montréal must not be repeated," says Silke Klumb, Managing Director of Deutsche Aidshilfe. "The motto of the World AIDS Conference is Put People First—and this means that people from key communities must be able to represent their interests on site," Klumb continues.

Deutsche Aidshilfe is therefore calling on the German government to immediately and urgently support the timely issuing of visas for all attendees. Deutsche Aidshilfe is also urging the German embassies to process applications quickly.

The International AIDS society supports attendees having any problems with obtaining a visa; we recommend to contact AIDS 2024 Immigration Support at visa@aids2024.org.

Update, July 16:

According to an IAS spokesperson, 77% of 693 IAS scholarship recipients and other participants involved in IAS activities during the conference have obtained their visas, 14% are still pending, and 9% have been denied; IAS is in close touch with those persons.

In addition to assisting scholarship recipients and active participants, the has provided support to 91 conference delegates who contacted the support team because of visa problems. According to the spokesperson, the IAS cannot track the results of the interventions, as delegates do not systematically inform them when a problem has been solved.

The IAS trusts organizers of side events outside of AIDS 2024 to provide similar support to the one provided by IAS since several individuals plan only to attend events outside AIDS 2024.