The Aquarius is operated by MSF and SOS Méditerranée Photograph: Boris Horvat/AFP/Getty Images

Prosecutors allege garments on Aquarius should have been labelled as ‘toxic waste’

theguardian.com - by Lorenzo Tondo - November 20, 2018

Italian authorities have ordered the seizure of the migrant rescue ship Aquarius after claiming that discarded clothes worn by the migrants on their voyage from Libya to Italy could have been contaminated by HIV, meningitis and tuberculosis . . .

 . . . “Clothing categorically is not, and has never been, an HIV transmission risk,” said Deborah Gold, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust.

“This would have stood out as ridiculous even amongst the misinformation of the 1980s, never mind in 2018. Migrants and people seeking asylum have historically been attacked using myths about HIV and infectious conditions, and we condemn this both for its stigmatising of people living with HIV and of migrants fleeing hardship.”