LGBT asylum briefs

Sex and the ayatollahs
When it comes to sex education, the Iranian authorities are anything but squeamish

Prossy Kakooza Must Stay!
New group for Facebook members

asylumlaw.org
New content on Sexual Minorities & HIV Status

Commentary: UK’s Gay Asylum Policy Is Crazy!
Queerty (USA) — There’s quite a queer contradiction in the United Kingdom’s gay policy.

Letter to the Ugandan Authorities Regarding Recent Arrest of LGBT Activists
Human Rights Watch

Land of no return
All across the country, communities are organising themselves to stop their friends and neighbours from being deported. From lobbying the Home Office to foiling dawn raids, the resistance will stop at nothing to keep failed asylum seekers safe in Britain.

The hell of being an asylum seeker
Meet Sergey. He's a doctor. He's also an asylum seeker who is forced to survive on £35 of Asda vouchers a week. Award-winning novelist Mark Haddon discovers the horror of being a refugee in the UK today.

Once again, Harmondsworth hunger strike broken violently

On Saturday, 5th April, between 5 and 6am, around 50 police in riot gear stormed the Harmondsworth immigration prison, near Heathrow, to break the detainees hunger strike who were protesting against the so-called fast track asylum system. They took 30 detainees away and most of them were put in solitary confinement or taken into normal prisons to prevent them from communicating with each other and the outside world. One detainee, who managed to contact supporters, said he was bruised all over his body, had injuries from handcuffs and a damaged ankle. He also reported that he saw another detainee being violently 'manhandled' by police.

The detainees' peaceful protest had started at 9am on April 1st, with mass food refusal by almost all of the detainees in the so-called immigration removal centre. Later, they also occupied the courtyard and around 120 of them remained there all night. A petition, with 116 signatures, has been sent to the European Court of Human Rights, John McDonnell MP and others (see also supporters' press release).