News update

The Dutch have blocked the transfer of Iranian gay teenager Mehdi to Heathrow because they did not trust the British authorities.

They have rules that stop gay deportations to Tehran. These have been hard-won, despite government efforts to undermine them (this also happened in Sweden).

Italians who protested Monday outside the UK's Rome Embassy are claiming this as their victory.

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News that various MEPs, following the publicity, have written to the Home Office about the scheduled deportation of nineteen year-old Iranian gay asylum seeker Seyed Mehdi Kazemi to Tehran— and almost certain behind-prison-walls execution.

This should save him and indicates that he hasn't already been deported (cross fingers). But the pressure still needs to be there. Whatever happens, until he has absolute right to stay the Home Office led by Ms Smith, going on past experience, will continue to attempt to deport him.

This is despite the fine statements on the Iranian human rights situation by Ms Smith's colleagues and - most notably - the stated position of the Foreign Office that Iran is a deathzone for gay men.

Please send Jacqui Smith a message - all the evidence is that this really does help save lives like those of this poor Iranian teenager.

I'm advised that these are the contact points:

• public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
• indpublicenquiries@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Smith MP's contact points are:

The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
House of Commons, Westminster,
London, SW1A 0AA
By Telephone and Fax :
01527 523355
By E mail
smithjj@parliament.uk

• More information on the case
• Video: Italians protest UK deportation of gay teen to Iran

Video: Italians protest UK deportation of gay teen to Iran

Google translation from the Italian (Source: radioradicale.it):

In the coming hours the gay Iranian Seyed Mehdi Kazemi will be transferred from Holland (where he is after having fled from England following the British authorities' refusal to grant him political asylum) to London, before being deported to Iran where he risks execution for the crime of "lavat" (sodomy). The delivery of Mehdi should happen already tomorrow.

None Touch Cain and the Radical Party Nonviolento, transnational and transpartito ask the Foreign Minister D'Alema to intervene immediately to the UK to freeze the unacceptable process of deportation to Iran of Mehdi. That represent a violation of international conventions on human rights and in particular the Convention on Refugees, the jurisprudence of the European Court on Human Rights and the same law (Directive 2005/85).

Yesterday [Monday 25th February] at 17:30 in Rome, in front of the Embassy of Great Britain (Via XX September, 80), there will be a demonstration of No Touch Cain, Nonviolento Transnational Radical Party and Transpartito and Group Everyone, to ask the Government to halt the English 'extradition of Medhi to Iran.

Monday's protest (in Italian)

Previous coverage of Madhi by UKGayNews

Previous coverage of Madhi by UKGayNews:

• Christmas Gift from Netherlands for Gay Iranian – One Way Ticket to UK. It was not the Christmas present that a young gay Iranian wanted. A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Mehdi, the gay Iranian teenager, has to be returned to the United Kingdom, where he faces deportation back to Iran. (UK Gay News, December 24, 2007)

• Gay Iranian Teen Awaits Decision of Dutch Court Over Return to UK. A young gay Iranian, who fled the United Kingdom in fear after his asylum application with the Home Office’s Border and Immigration Agency failed earlier this year, will be spending the festive season hoping that a Dutch court will allow him to stay in the Netherlands. (UK Gay News, December 21, 2007)

• They Hang Gay Teenagers, Don’t They? A gay Iranian teenager whose asylum claim was denied in the UK fled to the Netherlands, and then to Germany. The Germans returned him to the Dutch, who are now threatening to return him to the Brits, who have already decided to return the gay teenager to Iran. And you know what they do to gay teenagers in Iran, right? (Seattle Stranger - USA, December 20)
  

• Young Gay Iranian Soon on His Way Back to UK? Mehdi, the young gay Iranian who fled the United Kingdom in April, could be back in the country within weeks, his uncle revealed last night. (UK Gay News, October 17, 2007)
  

• Nineteen Year Old Says ‘I Am an Iranian Gay’. The following email has been received by the IRanian Queer Organisation in Toronto from a young gay man who was studying at school in UK and, after difficulties with the UK Home Office over asylum managed to flee England, ending up in the Netherlands. The letter is published here as written. (UK Gay News, September 26, 2007)
  

• Don’t Leave Iranian Gays Abandoned. By Mehdi. This article was written by a 19-years-old gay Iranian who tells how, while he was a student in London, his boyfriend back home was executed for being gay. Mehdi says he was scared of returning home and meeting the same fate when his student visa expired last year – and of his asylum application to the Home Office. (UK Gay News, April 18, 2007)

Jamaican activist seeks asylum in Canada

Source: PinkNews.co.uk

A prominent member of gay rights group J-FLAG, Jamaica’s Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, is claiming refugee status in Canada.

Gareth Henry, who spoke at Pride London last year about the plight of lesbian and gay people in his country, told CBC News that 13 of his friends have been killed in the last four years.

On this day last year Mr Henry was one of three gay men stoned by a huge mob in a homophobic attack.

Police eventually escorted the men from a pharmacy in Saint Andrew Parish, where they had been hiding for almost an hour.

An angry crowd had gathered outside the pharmacy, hurling insults and threatening to kill the men. Officers dispersed the crowd with tear gas. As many as 2,000 people were involved in the attack.

Mr Henry, 22, told CBC:

“When you find police officers who are leading mob attacks, turning up at people’s home like myself, pointing guns at my window, with civilians with them, and saying that I need to leave or they’re going to kill me, it reinforces homophobia.”

Two weeks ago an attack on a group of men alleged to be homosexual left one man seriously injured and another missing feared dead.

International human rights organisations have described Jamaica as one of the most homophobic places in the world.

Sex between men in Jamaica is illegal, and punishable with up to ten years in jail, usually with hard labour.

In December 2003, a World Policy Institute survey on sexual orientation and human rights in the Americas said:

“In the Caribbean, Jamaica is by far the most dangerous place for sexual minorities, with frequent and often fatal attacks against gay men fostered by a popular culture that idolises reggae and dancehall singers whose lyrics call for burning and killing gay men.”

About GayAsylumUK

Gay Asylum UK is a voluntary organisation that receives no public funding and has its own independent views. Our aim is to assist and help gay asylum seekers in the UK, despite their country of origin or current legal status. However our special interest and expertise is in the persecution, torture and execution of homosexuals in and by the Islamic republic of Iran.

Omar Kuddus of GayAsylumUK personally took on the British Government itself, to establish the law, of Misfeasance in Public Office, in the House of Lords and strip away the ability for government authorities and its employees to hide behind “crown Protection”.

Capital Punishment is an inhuman retribution and contributes to the vain circle of violence and retaliation within society. Especially when totalitarian regimes use execution as a legitimate means to oppress, diminish and murder their minority groups. On the other hand, psychological side-effects of executions, in short and long terms, are damaging to the victims’ survivors as well as to the executers of the punishments. Add to this the fact that execution reduces society’s sensitivity against violence and violent behaviour.

For the foundations of a civil society, for democracy and establishment of human rights, to respect the rights and the safety of alternative and freethinkers and to promote a non-violence culture, the omission of capital punishment is the first and foremost step.

We may have different political, social and cultural believes and objectives, but we all have come to agree on one point, and that is, the importance of abolishment of capital punishment for the sake of Iranian society.

We urge everyone to get involved actively in a wide spread war against capital punishment in Iran and help achieve this national goal through joined efforts of all especially the Homosexual community.

Sexuality is as important a fundamental right as all others and should be respected.