Paris

A row over the availability of visas for visitors from developing nations is casting a shadow over the 14th International AIDS Conference, which opens in Barcelona on 7 July.

Scientists and journalists from several countries, including India, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, say that they have had their visa applications blocked or delayed by local Spanish embassy officials.

Earlier this year, the Spanish foreign ministry contacted its embassies around the world asking them to expedite visas for participants in the conference who meet certain requirements, such as having medical insurance and sufficient money to return home.

But the message failed to get through, according to Lars Kallings, secretary-general of the Stockholm-based International AIDS Society, one of the conference's organizers. Kallings says that visa applications have been hampered by bureaucracy, and that staff at various embassies and consulates have been unhelpful. Some applicants have complained that the entry requirements are excessive, Kallings says, whereas others allege that wealthier tourists have been given priority for the fixed quotas of available visas.

John Mokili, a Congolese postdoc who is currently working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, says that he has only just received his visa — a month after he applied for it. The process should normally take a day. As of 1 July, he says, only one of 14 other Congolese researchers had their visas.

And of 72 journalists from developing nations offered scholarships to attend a training programme on reporting on HIV, only 25 have their visas, says Laurie Garrett, a New York-based journalist helping to organize it.

Kallings says that the situation could look as though Spain has breached its contract to host the conference without discrimination. He points out that the United States remains blacklisted as a venue for the conference after similar problems in 1985 and 1987.

Conference organizers have pressed the Spanish government to redress the situation and one organizer, Javier Rubio, says a list of registered participants has now been circulated to Spain's embassies and a fresh effort is under way to speed up visa applications.

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