First move on LGBT asylum from new British government

Image by The Prime Minister's Office via Flickr

By Paul Canning

The new Coalition government has released an agreement which includes a mention of LGBT asylum.

The Coalition agreement says (page 18):

"We will stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution."

We very much welcome this early move but question the potential effectiveness as worded - the devil is in the detail - and note that the wording is different to the Conservative Party manifesto commitment.

We will be looking at this in much more detail later.