Gay Iranian teenager not granted asylum in UK; risks execution if deported (1 Viewer)

[Kwayera]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/a-life-or-death-decision-792058.html#a

A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when his boyfriend was executed by the Iranian authorities now faces the same fate after losing his legal battle for asylum.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

In a telephone conversation with his father in Tehran, Mr Kazemi was told that before the execution in April 2006, his boyfriend had been questioned about sexual relations he had with other men and under interrogation had named Mr Kazemi as his partner.

Fearing for his own life if he returned to Iran, Mr Kazemi claimed asylum in Britain. But late in 2007 his case was refused. Terror-stricken at the prospect of deportation the young Iranian made a desperate attempt to evade deportation and fled Britain for Holland where he is now being detained amid a growing outcry from campaigners.

He appeared before a Dutch court yesterday to plead with the authorities not to return him to Britain where he is almost certain to be sent back to Iran.

In a letter to the British Government, Mr Kazemi has told the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith: "I wish to inform the Secretary of State that I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But in the past few months my situation back home has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me." He added: "I cannot stop my attraction towards men. This is something that I will have to live with the rest of my life. I was born with the feeling and cannot change this fact but it is unfortunate that I cannot express my feeling in Iran. If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed like my former boyfriend."

Mr Kazemi's future will now be decided by a Dutch appeal court, which will rule whether to grant him permission to apply for asylum in Holland, which offers special protection to gay Iranians, or whether he will be deported to Britain. His case has attracted support from leading gay rights groups across Europe who are campaigning to allow him to live in Britain.

Omar Kuddus, from Gay Asylum UK, said that Britain must do more to protect homosexual asylum-seekers such as Mr Kazemi: "The challenge and legality under question and debate in the Dutch court is if he can or should be deported back to the UK under the Dublin Treaty which compels EU states to send asylum-seekers to the first European country they claim asylum."

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights campaign group Outrage, described the Government's policy as "outrageous and shameful". He said: "If Mehdi is sent back to Iran he will be at risk of execution because of his homosexuality. This is a flagrant violation of Britain's obligations under the refugee convention.

"It is just the latest example of the Government putting the aims of cutting asylum numbers before the merits of individual cases. The whole world knows that Iran hangs young, gay men and uses a particularly barbaric method of slow strangulation. In a bid to fulfil its target to cut asylum numbers the Government is prepared to send this young man to his possible death. It is a heartless, cruel mercenary anti-refugee policy."

Emma Ginn, of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, met Mr Kazemi at the Tinsley House removal centre, near Gatwick airport, while he was being detained by the Home Office. She recalls: "Mehdi was very anxious when I visited him in Tinsley. The Home Office planned to deport him two days later to Iran where he risked being executed like his boyfriend had been. I'm not surprised he fled the UK."

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, more than 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. The last reported case of the death penalty imposed against a gay man was that of Makwan Moloudzadeh, 21, who was executed in December after being convicted for sodomy, or lavat, a capital offence under Iranian law.

Last year, the Foreign Office released correspondence sent between embassies throughout the EU dating back to May 2005. They refer specifically to the case of two gay youths, Mahmoud Asqari, under 18 at the time of his execution, and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in public.

The Home Office's own guidance issued to immigration officers concedes that Iran executes homosexual men but, unaccountably, rejects the claim that there is a systematic repression of gay men and lesbians.

The Government has a policy of not commenting on individual cases but a Home Office spokeswoman said: "The UK Government is committed to providing protection for those individuals found to be genuinely in need, in accordance with our commitments under international law. If an application is refused, there is a right of appeal to an independent judge, and we only return those who have been found by the asylum decision-making process and the independent courts not to need international protection.

"We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return. However, in order to maintain the integrity of our asylum system and prevent unfounded applications it is important that we are able to enforce returns of those who do not need protection." She added: "The Dublin Regulation states that an asylum applicant should make an application for protection in the first 'safe' country they reach having left their own country. If they do not do so, the Regulation permits the return of asylum applicants to the third country where the substantive asylum claim was made."

 

[Nebuchanezzar]

He won't be sent back home now. Good to see the media and whatever functioning for good.

 

[chicky_pie]

These 2 should be sent to Iran.

 

[Mumma]

mcain looks smashed

 

[chicky_pie]

He won't be sent back home now. Good to see the media and whatever functioning for good.

Yeah, the Dutch are more supportive to these kind of situation than Britain.

 

[boris]

So fucking what. He's gay and he's going to be executed in a shithole country, like the god knows how many other people.

Iran is shit. Thank fuck we don't live in Iran. The end.

 

[Kwayera]

I'm more muttering about Britian who'd choose to deport him to certain death over what they consider a human rights issue.

 

[Ba'al Shem Tov]

A British judge denied Kazemi's request for asylum in 2006 on the grounds that Iran does not systematically persecute homosexuals.

Is that a joke?

Institutionalised punishment and execution for your sexuality isn't systematic persecution?

I wonder what this treatment of teens simply for being gay is counted as?

 

[boris]

I'm more muttering about Britian who'd choose to deport him to certain death over what they consider a human rights issue.

Yeah. Well, Britain is a shithole too tbh.

 

[Aryanbeauty]

An Iranian homosexual man who has said he will be executed if he is deported from the Netherlands has had his claim for asylum overturned.
Mehdi Kazemi has said his life is in danger if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed.

Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic.

A Dutch spokesman said Mr Kazemi would now be sent to the UK, the first European country he entered.

A claim for asylum in the UK had already been turned down.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7290330.stm


Tough Luck!

 

[bassistx]

I don't know how you guys can be so selfish.
People are getting hanged because of their sexual preferences. Nvm the country.
Doesn't that mean anything to you?

It's more like Thank f*ck we're heterosexuals.

 

[bassistx]

WHY SELF-CENSOR, IT JUST MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.

Fucking hell man, he shouldn't of gotten caught being a fag.

Because I'm so self-righteous I don't swear.
Closet case?

 

[bassistx]

Thank fuck we don't live in Iran.

Thank fuck we're heterosexuals.

Oh my God, it makes sense! :O
Censored means I'm thinking it. I'd never actually say it unless someone really pushed me over the top. It just sounds trashy.

Btw, it's spelt "capisce".
Alternative spellings. capice, capicé, capiche, capeesh, capisch, capishe, coppish.
Etymology. From Italian capisce, third person present

 

[Ba'al Shem Tov]

Gay Iranian wins deportation battle

A GAY Iranian who says he faces death if forced to return home has won a deportation battle and been granted asylum in Britain, officials said.


Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but later said he had discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

British authorities refused his asylum application last year, as did Dutch authorities, but in March Britain agreed to reconsider the case after "new circumstances'' came to light.

The UK Border Agency said yesterday it had decided to grant him asylum.

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case,'' said a spokesman.

"The UK Border Agency considers each case on its individual merits and will continue to provide refuge for those asylum seekers with a genuine need for protection."

Liberal Democrat lawmaker Simon Hughes, who championed the Iranian's case, welcomed the decision.

"Like Mehdi and his family in Britain, I am delighted to hear of the Home Office decision to let him stay in this country. This is great news for a very decent man,'' he said.

"As I have argued over the last 18 months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian people back to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or death.''

EU lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg called on Britain in March to look favourably on Mr Kazemi's attempts to secure asylum, saying he would be executed if he were deported to Iran.

The Iranian authorities "routinely imprison, torture and execute homosexuals'', the lawmakers said in a resolution.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23736626-23109,00.html

 

[MissSarajevo]

hopefully he'll not become a suicide bomber.

 

[JaredR]

Funnilly enough Iranians are more cunning than to just blow themselves up, instead they fund terrorist organisations and terrorists themselves.

Yet another instance of the backwardness of the Iranian State.

 

[jazzbaby]

gosh
:S
he will get his asylum coz of the media coverage

 

[Ba'al Shem Tov]

gosh
:S
he will get his asylum coz of the media coverage

He did get assylum hence the bump announcing it

 

[banco55]

LOL at the left wingers who are all for gay rights while simualtaenously supporting mass muslim immigration to the west.

 

[kaz1]

The media have done it again.