Human Rights
/Sexual diversity
- Wed Mar 12 2008
Source:
iPetitions
Gay Asylum
A gay Iranian teenager faces deportation from Britain and execution in his home country after a Dutch court refused to hear his asylum claim.
Mehdi Kazemi, 19, will be forced to return to Britain, where his asylum application was rejected last year. He is then expected to be “removed” to Iran where his boyfriend was hanged two years ago for sodomy.
The ruling will put the Home Office under renewed pressure to reassess his case — or face the possibility of sending a young man to his death. The department’s own guidance concedes that Iran executes homosexuals but rejects the claim that there is a systematic repression of gay men and lesbians.
Mehdi went to London to study English in 2005. He applied for asylum after discovering that his former boyfriend had been charged in Iran with sodomy and had been hanged. Legal papers claim that his boyfriend was questioned about sexual relations he had with other men and, under interrogation, named Mr Kazemi as his partner.
In a letter to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, Mr Kazemi wrote: “I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But . . . my situation has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me. I cannot stop my attraction towards men . . . I was born with the feeling and cannot change this fact . . . If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed.”
His case was refused last year and he fled to the Netherlands where he had hoped to reapply for asylum. Yesterday Borg Palm, his solicitor, said that the court had ruled that he could make a claim only in Britain. “The case was about whether he should be sent to Britain or not — which country was responsible for his asylum case,” he said.
According to human rights campaigners more than 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed in Iran since the revolution in 1979.
Read the full article in Times Online
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In-depth
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Civil and political rights
Now more than ever are strong actions needed to defend the rights of all human beings, as proclaimed in a long list of international treaties.
Homophobia
The fear and rejection of homosexuality pervades society, making this a hostile and dangerous world for non-heterosexuals.
Sexual diversity and the law
Depending on where they live, LGBT people may be allowed to marry and adopt children, or be put to death.
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Iranian Queer Organization – IRQO
International organization based in Toronto, Canada with key workers in Europe and Iran, which helps Iranian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered refugees all over the world.
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