News
Sri Lanka sees sharp rise in HIV cases, youth most affected
By Pradeep Prasanna Samarakoon and Eranthi Marambe
There has been a notable increase in the number of HIV-positive individuals in Sri Lanka, with over 500 new cases reported from January 1 to date this year, according to Dr. Vindya Kumarapeli, Director of the National STD/AIDS Control Programme, who spoke at a media briefing held at the Health Promotion Bureau in Colombo to mark World AIDS Day on 01 December.
Dr. Kumarapeli noted that the first case of HIV had been identified in 1987, and approximately 5,000 HIV-positive individuals were currently registered at clinics, with around 3,500 of them receiving treatment. She said that between 200 and 300 new cases were reported annually in 2020 and 2021. However, in 2022 and 2023, this figure doubled. In 2023 alone, 694 new cases were reported, with 613 of them being male, representing 88% of the cases.
Dr. Kumarapeli said there had been a significant increase in HIV infections among youth aged 15 to 24 since 2018. In 2023, 105 of the newly identified HIV cases were among individuals in this age group.
Addressing the media, Dr. Vinodharma Kulasingha, a specialist in sexually transmitted diseases from the National STD/AIDS Control Programme, announced that the World AIDS Day march on 01 December 2024, would commence from the Galle Face Green in Colombo and proceed to the programme’s headquarters at the Ministry of Health.
As part of the awareness campaign, a double-decker bus will travel across Colombo city, and a series of events will be held at 40 STD clinics across the country to commemorate the World AIDS Day. Preventive measures for HIV, such as delaying sexual activity until marriage, limiting sexual relationships to one trusted partner, and always using condoms during sexual intercourse, were also emphasized.
The media briefing was also addressed by Dr. Sathya Herath, a public health specialist at the National STD/AIDS Control Programme, and Dr. Asantha Fernando, the Acting Deputy Director of the Health Promotion Bureau.
More than 250 people from 20 nationalities including a Sri Lankan who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar’s Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.
The workers, more than half of whom were from African or Asian nations, were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking.
Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.
Her government has stopped access to power and fuel from the Thai side of the border, and toughened up banking and visa rules to try to prevent scam operators from using Thailand as a transit country for moving workers and cash.
Some opposition MPs in Thailand have been pushing for this kind of action for the past two years.
Foreign workers are typically lured to these scam centres by offers of good salaries, or in some cases tricked into thinking they will be doing different work in Thailand, not Myanmar.
The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese.
They are pressed into conducting online criminal activity, ranging from love scams known as “pig butchering” and crypto fraud, to money laundering and illegal gambling.
Some are willing to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible if their families pay large ransoms. Some of those who have escaped have described being tortured.
The released foreign workers were handed over by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, DKBA, one of several armed factions which control territory inside Karen State.
These armed groups have been accused of allowing the scam compounds to operate under their protection, and of tolerating the widespread abuse of trafficking victims who are forced to work in the compounds.
The Myanmar government has been unable to extend its control over much of Karen State since independence in 1948.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, which is similar to the US FBI, requested arrest warrants for three commanders of another armed group known as the Karen National Army.
The warrants included Saw Chit Thu, the Karen warlord who struck a deal in 2017 with a Chinese company to build Shwe Kokko, a new city believed to be largely funded by scams.
The BBC visited Shwe Kokko at the invitation of Yatai, the company which built the city.
Yatai says there are no more scams in Shwe Kokko. It has put up huge billboards all over town proclaiming, in Chinese, Burmese and English, that forced labour is not allowed, and that “online businesses” should leave.
But we were told by local people that the scam business was still running, and interviewed a worker who had been employed in one.
Like the DKBA, Saw Chit Thu broke away from the main Karen insurgent group, the KNU, in 1994, and allied himself to the Myanmar military.
Under pressure from Thailand and China, both Saw Chit Thu and the DKBA have said they are expelling the scam businesses from their territories.
The DKBA commander contacted a Thai member of parliament on Tuesday to arrange the handover of the 260 workers.
They included 221 men and 39 women, from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sir Lanka, India, Ghana and Cambodia.
[BBC]
Coinciding with the President’s three-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attend the World Governments Summit 2025, Sri Lanka and the UAE reached an agreement on Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments to strengthen economic and investment relations between the two countries.
The agreement was signed by Mohamed Bin Hadi Al Hussaini, UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs, and Vijitha Herath, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
This bilateral agreement establishes a secure legal framework to expand investment opportunities in global markets while ensuring the protection of foreign investments.
The purpose of this agreement is to facilitate and strengthen foreign investments between the two nations by ensuring investor rights protection, promoting economic cooperation, and establishing comprehensive investment protection mechanisms, dispute resolution frameworks, and policy structures. This agreement will also contribute to strengthening global economic partnerships and creating opportunities for exploring new investment prospects in Sri Lanka.
This agreement underscores the importance of bilateral economic development and financial stability while demonstrating the commitment of both the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka to strengthening economic cooperation. It aims to foster trade and business expansion in Sri Lanka while promoting a transparent and stable investment environment.
Furthermore, this agreement also highlights Sri Lanka’s commitment to enhancing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and fostering a more attractive investment landscape. By enhancing investor confidence, it is expected to generate new business opportunities and contribute to economic progress as well as reinforce the long-term partnership between the UAE and Sri Lanka, facilitating sustainable investments and advancing trade and financial collaborations between the two countries.
The Hindu has reported that Adani Green has withdrawn from the controversial renewable energy project in northern Sri Lanka, amid persisting controversy and a legal battle over its approval and potential environmental impact.
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