Analysis: Labour's leadership candidates on LGBT asylum, Balls the winner

Ed Balls image by Downing Street via Flickr  

By Paul Canning

LGBT Labour has released the leadership candidates final answers on LGBT asylum.

Although the winner will be either Ed or David Miliband, the others are likely to either take up senior shadow cabinet positions or positions of influence. Overall, the statements reflect the sort of information they have been paying attention to during the campaign as well as during their time as politicians. It's a fair measure of their knowledge of the subject and that's also a fair measure of the importance that the gay community and gay Labour people place on the issue.

On both of those measures mostly it's not good and overall the answers reflect badly on whether Labour as a party is prepared to look out for the most marginalised LGBT in the UK. They fail to correct the idea, which undoubtedly did lose them some votes in the last election, that they don't think there was any problem either with their treatment of LGBT asylum seekers or the pandering by some Labour people (such as Woolas and Blunkett) to anti-foreigner, anti-migrant sentiment (which backgrounded the LGBT asylum issue) or that this all happened because they were prepared to put votes before principals.

Starting with the answer from the leading candidate, David Miliband.

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UK Labour leadership candidates final answer on LGBT asylum

Image via Wikipedia

LGBT Labour has today released the answers to a Q & A from them to the Labour Party leadership candidates on LGBT equality. It includes their answers to the following question:

How can we ensure a fair asylum system to help LGBT people who face persecution in their countries of origin?

Their answers are as follows.

Diane Abbott

I understand the many problems with the immigration system better than any of my rivals and I frequently meet asylum seekers within my constituency.  The application process is flawed in many ways and lets down LGBT people and many others.

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Who knew? Concern over LGBT asylum is "fashionable" says David Miliband

By Paul Canning

From PinkPaper.com's interview with likely future Labour Party leader David Miliband - on a Labour leadership campaign visit to a gay bar:

Asked if there were things he would do differently or areas where they got it wrong, like on LGBT asylum seekers.

But Miliband said: “It’s fashionable to trash the Labour record but this is one area where, why should we? We actually did massively more than we ever conceived that we would. I’m open minded about whether we could do more but let’s celebrate what we did do.”

"We actually did massively more"? He's channeling Phil Woolas - former Immigration Minister and noted race baiter.

So no apology from David for the treatment by his government of LGBT fleeing persecution. This hasn't stopped four lesbian and gay Labour MPs endorsing him, though both LGBT Labour members as well as voters apparently feel differently. They prefer leadership opponent and brother Ed.

I wouldn't expect any less from those four MPs, Chris Bryant, Angela Eagle, Ben Bradshaw and Stephen Twigg, given their total lack of concern for LGBT people fleeing persecution before (solitary exception: Stephen Twigg did sign the Mehdi Kazemi driven petition to Gordon Brown calling for reform but - disclosure - I do know him and I did ask). But I suppose they have potential future shadow ministry positions to protect ... and apologising for the treatment of LGBT asylum seekers, for anything the past government did infact, just isn't done.

By contrast brother Ed says:

We needed to show greater leadership on the question of those seeking asylum because they face persecution in their home country because of their sexuality. The fact that many forced to return to their home country were advised to be "discreet" is tantamount to an admission that the system recognised the dangers of their forced return but did too little about them.

It's a start, Though why does Ed in the election manifesto he authored have immigration directly linked with crime? I don't believe he's been asked - but then this is the first time in Labour's leadership campaign Miliband, D has been asked about LGBT asylum and that reflects a general lack of discussion on Labour's treatment of migrants during the campaign, so that's hardly surprising.

Both Milband's are the children of asylum seekers. One wonders what their parents would think of concern over the status of their historic descendants being described as "fashionable".

The Foreign Office and LGBT human rights: fake concern from shameless Labour

By Paul Canning

Labour really is shameless in hoping we'll all forget the gaping, gigantic, ginormous gaps in its LGBT record isn't it?

On asylum it's taken months before one solitary leader has acknowledged their appalling record - something completely and deliberately ignored during the election campaign in favour of a 'forget that, look over here' approach of 'keep pointing at the domestic legislative record' and 'yell loudly whenever some odd right-wing Tory 'misspeaks''.

On LGBT rights overseas, as I've documented, under Labour it was all about EU members with the occasional stretch to Africa and never about the world's biggest LGBT rights catastropy - Iraq. During the election the leading contender for the leadership David Miliband even told someone to shut up about Iraq during an LGBT event. The international record for Labour is actually thin, weak and late but you wouldn't know it from them banging on about it. What Hillary Clinton has done in less than two years puts their 13 to shame. Or rather it should.

Now LGBT Labour is joining in with Amnesty International amongst others blasting William Hague's Foreign Office on the new government's record internationally on human rights in general and LGBT specifically. The reason? Because of the generalised cost-cutting effort, they're looking at stopping publishing the annual human rights report as a glossy brochure and instead just publishing it online.

That's it. That's the big 'sell out'.

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Finally some humility from a Labour leader on LGBT asylum

By Paul Canning

Ed Miliband has become the first Labour Party leadership candidate to come out and criticise the government he was part of for its treatment of LGBT asylum seekers.

Writing for pinknews.co.uk he said:

I also believe we needed to show greater leadership on the question of those seeking asylum because they face persecution in their home country because of their sexuality. The fact that many forced to return to their home country were advised to be "discreet" is tantamount to an admission that the system recognised the dangers of their forced return but did too little about them. I don’t believe the answers are easy but we must find them even when they are difficult. My family fled persecution by the Nazis and I will always speak out for the protection of gay and trans people fleeing abuse and against persecution around the world.

His brother David, who is currently slightly leading Ed amongst pundits as the expected winner of the leadership campaign (and is also the descendant of asylum seekers), has by contrast been all over the place: during the election the issue was ignored or treated with indifference (here he was following the strategy of LGBT Labourites); when questioned in government he advanced the same bizarre line of 'pride' in Britain's treatment of LGBT asylum as that advanced by notorious anti-migrant and tabloid approval seeker the Labour Minister of State for Borders and Immigration Phil Woolas.

When given the opportunity in July to agree that 'Labour had let down gay supporters in this area', he refused to criticise the government he was in.

Asked in that interview about the Supreme Court decision which eviscerated the government LGBT asylum policy of 'go home and be discrete' he claimed not to know of it and gave the same stock response as other then and now former Ministers, including Gordon Brown, have ("I think the whole point is that [things are done] on a case by case basis"), a spin line which ignores the existence of Labour's 'discretion' policy, as advanced by them to the Supreme Court (or homophobia in the UK Border Agency for that matter).

Yet one month before in an online question-and-answer session he was asked whether "telling [LGBT asylum seekers] to ‘keep it a secret’ .. is a surrender and degrading to the individual?"

David Miliband typed:

We should stick to our international obligations – no ifs not buts.

This was the very point on which the Supreme Court decision hinged! His answer surely suggests that he knew this yet a month later he'd somehow forgotten that 'telling people to ‘keep it a secret’' was policy and fell back to the rote answer.

Of the other leadership candidates only Diane Abbott has a record of defending asylum seekers including LGBT ones and has criticised the Labour government's treatment of them during the leadership campaign.

Political reaction to Supreme Court decision

The Scottish National Party welcomed the Supreme Court decision on LGBT asylum.

SNP MSP for the South of Scotland Aileen Campbell said:

Last October at SNP Conference I seconded a motion which the party membership voted unanimously in favour of to overhaul asylum rules, which at the time did not allow people to seek asylum on the grounds of sexuality.

While it is shameful that any country in the world would persecute someone for being gay, it is also shameful that the UK has refused in the past to protect those same people.

I’m delighted that that has now changed for the better. Hopefully this is just the start of further significant changes which must still be made so that there is a fair and just asylum system that of which we can be proud.

Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes said:.

I am delighted this ruling recognises the rights of gay asylum seekers, ensuring their freedom from persecution around the world.

This plight is one that my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I have campaigned on for years. It is an issue that the Coalition Government is committed to addressing as we seek to restore Britain’s reputation around the world as a leader in the protection of human rights. I believe that today’s ruling will go some way to restoring that reputation.

Other countries around the world must now follow the UK’s lead and recognise freedom of expression and freedom of sexuality for all people.

Conservative Party Home Secretary Theresa May said:

I welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court, which vindicates the position of the coalition government. We have already promised to stop the removal 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.

I do not believe it is acceptable to send people home and expect them to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution. From today, asylum decisions will be considered under the new rules and the judgment gives an immediate legal basis for us to reframe our guidance for assessing claims based on sexuality, taking into account relevant country guidance and the merits of each individual case.

We will of course take any decisions on a case by case basis looking at the situation in the country of origin and the merits of individual cases in line with our commitment.'

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

The Government has said that it would not return LGBT asylum seekers to countries where they face severe persecution.

Today's ruling gives legal force to this policy, and means that the Home Office must abandon its shameful practice of using the 'keep quiet and you will be safe' argument to return lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum seekers to persecution and death in their native countries.

The TUC has written to the Home Secretary to seek a meeting to press for the policy and practice of the UK Border Agency to be changed immediately.

In an interview with pinknews.co.uk, former Foreign Secretary and leading candidate for the Labour Party leadership David Miliband said he was unaware of that morning's Supreme Court ruling  and had apparently not heard of the Labour-introduced policy that gay asylum seekers can be returned home if it is decided they can be "discreet".

I don't know about the case. I think the whole point is that [things are done] on a case by case basis.

Labour is shunning gay Iraqis, asylum seekers

Image by Labservative via Flickr

By Paul Canning (for pinknews.co.uk)

As he launched Labour's international LGBT manifesto last Wednesday, foreign secretary David Miliband made one howler, echoed by another in the manifesto's text.

He said: "Under Labour the UK will continue to be a beacon of hope for LGBT people."

This delusion sounded a lot like Home Office minister Phil Woolas' article last year, when he wrote that he was proud of the attendees of the London Pride march who'd found sanctuary in the UK – never mind that his office would have refused them and fought tooth-and-nail to remove them.

The pair should form a double act.

An Amnesty International report released today said that gays in Iraq have no protection from the state and are allegedly even being targeted by some security forces. Yet Miliband's 'beacon' government would tell those seeking our sanctuary they could safely return and be "discreet".

Recent research from the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group on 50 refused asylum cases found that many were told to go home and not act gay.

Laugh? Cry? There is no "discreet" in Iraq – they will come and they will find you and they will torture you and display your body. For women "discreet" means you must marry and suffer rape for the rest of your life.

Furthermore, Labour's gay group LGBT Labour has nothing to say on asylum, despite the group passing a resolution at its AGM last year that it would "explore with the Home Office and Borders and Immigration agency" such items as no longer telling people to "go home and be discreet".

Labour's gay manifesto has nothing to say on the matter, presumably because the "explorations" came to nowt.

Elsewhere, the document says that the UK has "campaigned in the UN for the decriminalisation of homosexuality".

Now this has been part of a shopping list of Labour's great deeds for LGBT for some time. Previously, LGBT Labour's website claimed that the party "launched" the campaign but this has now mysteriously disappeared.

It certainly didn't lead. The origins of the UN resolution lie in the work of Louis George Tin, the French International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) founder who launched a worldwide campaign to end the criminalisation of same-sex relationships in 2006. He worked with then French foreign and human rights minister Rama Yade to get it to the UN. The British tagged on later. Google it.

I've exchanged emails with Louis George on the Labour claim. Shall we just say he's "bemused"?

It's also de rigeur here for them to say "only Labour" will continue to support UN work. I guess it was written before the rise of the LibDems who appear to be a good decade ahead of Labour on LGBT issues.

Having knocked it there's one good thing to say about Labour's gay manifesto. It does promise to "always raise matters of LGBT rights in countries where there is systematic violence or harassment", naming Russia, Uganda, Iran and Jamaica.

Of course we won't offer asylum or accept refugees but this is progress. It's certainly progress on Miliband's own Foreign Office human rights report, issued in February, which barely mentions LGBT issues anywhere outside Europe. It also somehow misses their sterling work in the Commonwealth, but, in future, sez the manifesto, they'll be a "relentless champion".

One country is missing in that list: Iraq.

Let's be clear, Labour created this modern-day pogrom. Saddam wasn't systematically hunting people down because they were lesbian, gay or transgender. That started after the invasion.

Since then, none of the governments responsible have done anything about it bar a few diplomatic words. Right now there is a pogrom going on in southern Iraq, the area formerly controlled by Britain: the legacy of the Labour government's rule there.

Perhaps I shouldn't pick out just Labour LGBT for pretending that this isn't happening, hoping the stench in the corner will be quietly ignored. The Labour government may be legally responsible but they're not the only ones ignoring it (so, given realpolitik, Labour LGBT's hope may be quite justified). The LGBT 'community' internationally has a case to answer.

Neither is it the responsibility of LGBT alone to help rescue Iraqi gays, but for those who claim to care about our brothers and sisters in other countries (including those who seek votes on that basis) it is shameful how they are turning their backs on Iraqis.

They are focusing, like the American Jews of the 1930s and 40s, solely on our own selfish interests.

LGBT Ugandans have been discussing what to do should the 'kill-the-gays' bill pass, where to flee. Some Americans have talked about pressuring the US State Department to help rescue them.

And the UK? How would we help those from our former colony, to whom we bequeathed sodomy laws? Referring back to that list of countries this manifesto says are experiencing "systematic violence or harassment", how has the Labour government helped fleeing Jamaicans? Or Iranians?

Jewish people know all about rescue. We could learn something from their history. They have a litany called an Al Chet which they use during Yom Kippur. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote this one about how Jews escaping Germany weren't helped by fellow Jews who looked firstly after their own interests:

"Al chet shechatanu lefanecha bera’inu tzoras nafshoseihem shel acheinu bais yisroel shehischananu eileinu v’lo shamanu" [for the sin that we have sinned before you by seeing the suffering of our Jewish brethren who called to us and we did not listen].

They are calling, and we need to start listening.

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Foreign Office annual human rights report; LGBT work Euro-focused

Image by talkradionews via Flickr

By Paul Canning

The Foreign Office has released its second annual human rights report [PDF], the first covered 2008.

The 194 page document has two pages covering LGBT rights, largely focusing on Europe.

It cites:

• The UK's opposition to the Ugandan 'kill-the-gays' bill (not mentioned but conveyed to President Museveni by Gordon Brown)
• Raising violence against LGBT during the Nigeria country review

It notes that the UK welcomed positive legal developments in Rwanda, India and Mexico.

The most interesting development though was the UK pressing for the European Union's common foreign and security policy to develop a strategy based on the LGBT rights toolkit available to UK embassies since 2008.

It's main points are:

• Decriminalisation of same sex relationships
• Equality and non-discrimination in the application of human rights
• Human rights defenders
• Sexual health, reproductive rights and health education

The toolkit suggest that embassies provide messages of support when requested, encourage the British Council to include LGBT information in its public information centres, host debates and seminars on relevant issues and include LGBT aspects and speakers and support civil society work for LGBT rights by using local resources.

As the report's main focus is on Europe, mainly with institutions such as the Europe-wide Council of Europe and it includes a box highlight on the UK's support for Pride marches in Eastern Europe, it's unclear how widely the toolkit has actually been taken up by embassies outside Europe and there is no mention of any work with the Commonwealth.

In his speech launching the report, David Miliband mentioned the "small steps" of supporting gay rights activists in Uganda, Burundi and Malawi.

HT: UK Gay News


Edited to add:

The country reports do include some comments on lesbian and gay rights. On Iraq

We have received numerous reports of violence being committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation. It is difficult to obtain precise information. The 2009 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report highlighted examples of attacks being carried out by militia groups. However, official figures do not show a significant overall increase in violence against, or systematic abuse of, the homosexual community by fundamentalists or militia groups. The UK has raised concerns with the Iraqi Human Rights Minister who confirmed that homosexuality is not a criminal offence in Iraq. The Ministry of Interior has also stated that the killing of homosexuals is considered as murder, as it would be for any other individual, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted. We continue to monitor and discuss this issue with a range of NGOs, including a UK-based Iraqi LGBT group. In April, the former Foreign Office Minister, Bill Rammell, said: “The UK condemns the persecution of any individual because of their sexual orientation."

On Saudi Arabia:

The death penalty retains significant public support in Saudi Arabia and there is little sign of any movement towards its abolition. There were 67 executions in 2009. This compares to 97 executions in 2008 and 157 in 2007. The death sentence continues to be applied for offences including homosexuality and “witchcraft”. In May and November, the EU made representations to the Saudi government about the number of executions carried out in the Kingdom.

Foreign Office LGBT rights toolkit 

Foreign Office LGBT rights toolkit

UK urged to act on Malawi gay arrests

Source: Peter Tatchell

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is being urged to press the Malawian government to release two men, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, who are being held on remand over their alleged homosexual relationship, to drop all charges against them and to repeal the country’s anti-gay laws.

Mr Miliband is also being asked to seek a halt to the arrest and prosecution of three Malawian human rights campaigners, who publicly defended the jailed men and secured them legal representation.

The call comes from the London-based LGBT human rights group OutRage! Spokesperson, David Allison, has written to the Foreign Secretary, appealing to him to make representations to the President of Malawi, his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

A copy of Mr Allison’s letter follows below.

Meanwhile a letter of “support and solidarity” from OutRage!’s Peter Tatchell is being delivered to Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Chichiri Prison, Malawi. The two men, who were arrested following their engagement ceremony late last year, are being held on remand on gay sex charges ahead of their trial on 15 January

A copy of Mr Tatchell’s letter follows below. For background on the Malawi arrests, see here

Protest to the Malawian High Commissioner in London:

His Excellency Dr. Francis Moto, High Commission of Malawi, 70 Winnington Road, London N2 0TX, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44(0) 20 8455 5624, Fax: +44(0) 20 3235 1066. Email: malawi@malawihighcommission.co.uk

Further information:

David Allison – 0208 240 0222
Peter Tatchell – 0207 403 1790
Gift Trapence, Executive Director of the Malawian human rights group CEDP
+ (265) 888 50 9732
directorcedep@yahoo.com

Copy of the OutRage! letter to David Miliband MP, British Foreign Secretary

David Miliband MP
Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH

6 January 2010

Dear Secretary of State,

This letter is in support of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, citizens of Malawi, who are being held in custody in Chichiri Prison, Malawi, and denied bail, on charges of consenting adult homosexuality following their same-sex engagement ceremony.
In doing so they have committed no criminal offence under the laws of Malawi. The ceremony is legal in Malawi and no laws were broken by the two participants.

The news release below provides more comprehensive details about their case.

We ask you to intercede with the President of Malawi, his Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to urge that these two men are not ill-treated while in prison, to urge that they are swiftly released on bail and to urge that all charges against them are dropped.

We further ask you to press the Government of Malawi to initiate moves to decriminalise homosexuality in accordance with the equality and non-discrimination clauses of the Malawian constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

Finally, we ask that you call upon the Malawian government to halt police harassment and legal proceedings against HIV educators and human rights defenders from the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP); three of whose workers have recently been arrested following their public defence of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga and following their HIV education work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

I hope that you feel able to make these humanitarian representations to the leaders of Malawi and that you will advise us at your earliest opportunity.

Thank you.

David Allison
OutRage! – The LGBT Human Rights Campaign


Copy of Peter Tatchell’s message to the jailed men, Tiwonge and Steven

Dear Tiwonge and Steven,

May 2010 bring you and all Malawians justice, freedom and equality.

Congratulations on your courageous witness for gay human rights, as you battle for your right to be accepted, without discrimination.

Millions of people around the world know about your arrest and detention. You have received worldwide news coverage.

Stay Strong. We are with you in this period of trial and tribulation.

You are inspirations to us all. We salute you.

Take heart. You will win in the end. Justice and freedom will triumph.

You follow in the footsteps of the Malawians who fought against colonialism and the South Africans who battled against apartheid. They were arrested and persecuted, but they were victorious eventually.

Tell the judge that Malawi's anti-gay law was not devised by Malawians. It is was devised in London in the nineteenth century and imposed on the people of Malawi by the British colonisers and their army of occupation. Before the British came and conquered Malawi,
there were no laws against homosexuality. These laws are a foreign imposition. They are not African laws.

You are making history, and history will honour you.

I send you love and solidarity!

Peter Tatchell, OutRage! London, UK


Donate to the Malawi Defence Campaign

To make a donation from a UK bank within the UK, make an electronic bank transfer to OutRage!

Account name: OutRage
Bank: Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank, Bootle, Merseyside, GIR 0AA
Account number: 7780 9302
Sort code: 72-00-01

For electronic transfers from abroad, please ADDITIONALLY quote this:

IBAN: GB65ALEI72000177809302

Or post a cheque payable to “OutRage!” to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT. Enclose a note giving your name and address and stating that your donation is for the Malawi Defence Campaign. OutRage! will pass the money donated to the LGBT campaign team in Malawi. Thank you.

OutRage! – 0208 240 0222 and outrage@blueyonder.co.uk


Further information:

Gift Trapence, Executive Director of the Malawian human rights group CEDP

directorcedep@yahoo.com

+ (265) 888 50 9732

Peter Tatchell, OutRage!

peter@petertatchell.net

• Interview with Peter Tatchell about the Malawi arrests for Voice of America
  

Rev. Walter Attwood's letter about Iraqi asylum seekers

The Rev. Walter Attwood, who authored the petition on gay asylum to Gordon Brown, has written to his MP, Anne McGuire, about the plight of Iraqi asylum seekers.

Ms McGuire replied saying she "was moved to read of some of the horrific instances detailed in the information accompanying your letter."

She said that the letter has been forwarded to the Foreign Secretary for reply.

Attwood wrote:

I have held back for some weeks in writing to you about the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Iraq. I did this hoping that I would receive a reply to the petition I initiated on the Number 10 website concerning the deportation of these people to countries where they are in grave danger. The reply may well have allayed my anxieties or led to further correspondence on the subject. The petition, may I remind you, gathered 4,500 signatures and despite having been closed 4 months ago has not yet received an official reply. I know I am not the only person who is deeply upset, indeed angry, over this long delay.

From the enclosed report you will see that lesbian and gay people in Iraq are being persecuted because of their sexuality and are dieing extremely unpleasant deaths. This report is based upon reliable internationally recognised sources.

I request that you approach all the relevant government departments and express to them my personal horror about what is happening in Iraq. Also would you please obtain for me, under the Freedom of Information Act, copies of their policies concerning this matter, and any statements and approaches made to the Iraqi government about this matter and the replies they have received.

Also under the Freedom of Information Act I request the following information.

1) The number of Iraqi’s who are currently being considered for deportation who are seeking asylum on grounds of their sexual orientation.
2) The number of Iraqi’s who have been deported to Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussain who were claiming asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation.
3) The number of people who are currently being considered for deportation who are claiming asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation and the countries they are from.
4) The number of people who have, over the last five years been deported who claimed asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation and the countries to which they were deported.
5) A copy of the government’s guidelines used when considering the cases of people who are claiming asylum on grounds of their sexuality. The last time I asked for this I was referred to website page which contained a couple of sentences patting the government and its agencies on their backs and did not contain one sentence about the guidelines used. My request is firmly for a hardcopy of the documents, and all other relevant documents, as supplied to those considering the cases.

Gay Life After Saddam

Guardian review

What terrific reporting from Aasmah Mir in Gay Life After Saddam (BBC Radio 5 Live). It looked at the grim reality for gay, lesbian and transgender people living in Iraq, and the reasons for this savage new persecution. In a "liberated" country, this group finds itself yearning for the former regime. "We used to go every Thursday by the Tigris," said one man, his voice suffused with longing, "and we'd drink and swim. It was very relaxing."

Nobody in the programme sounded relaxed: Mir spoke to those in exile, in hiding, people who had been tortured or issued with death threats for helping others escape. Their stories ranged from sad to gruesome. We heard one Iraqi man tell how his boyfriend was abducted and murdered. "They had thrown his corpse in the garbage," he explained. "His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat had been cut out." We heard, too, about the torture: rape, and also "glue in the anus and then force-feeding laxatives".

Some of those fleeing Iraq seek asylum in Britain and there were tales of seemingly harsh treatment by the authorities. Mir couldn't explore these, as both David Miliband and Phil Woolas refused interviews for this programme. Shame on them, you were left thinking.

Listen to the show (60')

Gay Life After Saddam

A strange sympathy

Rhetoric about victims of Mugabe sits ill with the reality we Zimbabweans seeking asylum find here

By Yeukai Taruvinga

When I tell ordinary British people that I came to this country from Zimbabwe to seek asylum because of Robert Mugabe's government, they are always sympathetic. They see the humanitarian crisis, the old people and children dying of cholera - the UN reported yesterday that there were more than a thousand dead and another 20,000 sufferers. They see on the news night after night what Mugabe is doing to my country. And they see the continuing human rights crisis and how he treats those who oppose him.

Hopes were raised when Mugabe agreed to a power-sharing government with the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. But it is evident that human rights are still not being respected. In the last two weeks prominent human rights defenders have been abducted by groups suspected of having government links. These include Jestina Mukoko, the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who has not been seen since she was taken from her home on 3 December.

British politicians have expressed great sympathy towards Zimbabweans. Just last week Gordon Brown said that "we must stand together to defend human rights and democracy, to say firmly to Mugabe that enough is enough", and that it was "our duty" to support the aspirations of the Zimbabwean people. David Cameron has described Zimbabwe as the most important issue in the world today and has pressed for wider sanctions and a rescue package for the Zimbabwean people. And David Miliband has said that, "Zimbabwe's crisis is one that the world has a responsibility to respond to."

It is good to hear all this, but how does it translate into action? It is easy to condemn a government from afar. But if politicians really believe that Mugabe is illegitimate, that his repression of his own people is the most important issue in the world today, why do they behave as they do to his victims?

I got involved in supporting the opposition party when I was a student. Like many MDC supporters, I was beaten up by Mugabe's Zanu-PF thugs when I went to meetings and rallies. When they wrote threats on the walls of my family's house, my mother decided that I should leave the country.

I believed that I would be safe when I came here seven years ago, at the age of 18. When I stepped foot on English soil and claimed asylum, I did not realise that I was in for a long battle. I have been detained - imprisoned - for two and a half months, simply because I claimed asylum. I have been moved between three different detention centres, and taken without notice from Colnbrook at Heathrow, to Yarl's Wood in Bedford to Dungavel in Scotland.

You feel extremely helpless in such places: it is almost impossible to stay in touch with friends or your lawyer, and you believe that anything could happen to you and nobody would know about it. Although suspected terrorists cannot be held without trial for more than 28 days, I was locked up for more than 60 days. In Dungavel at that time there were only half a dozen women and hundreds of foreign criminals awaiting deportation. It was terrifying just to walk around the centre.

It seems to me that political leaders are reluctant to do anything to help those who make their way here. Last week Jacqui Smith said that the government's priority was to ensure that Zimbabwean refugees did not use false passports in order to get to this country. She did not say that refugees should find a fair system when they arrive.

I am still not safe. I have not been given refugee status. After my release from detention I was not allowed benefits nor allowed to work. This is the government's policy of destitution; if you have failed in your asylum claim, then you are forced to live without support. I rely on handouts and gifts from churches and friends, even for the bed I sleep in and the soap I wash with. Most of the people who help me are asylum seekers or refugees themselves, because they understand what it's like.

It is humiliating: not only can I not work, but I cannot study or learn. I am worried about the impact this is going to have on my future. I want to study and work, so that when Mugabe is toppled I and my fellow activists can be the backbone of the new country that will arise from the ashes. But all avenues are blocked to me to grow and give back to society. It is strange that this country, which expresses such sympathy for Zimbabwe's people, condemns its refugees to this kind of life - which is no life at all.

• Yeukai Taruvinga is not allowed to work; the fee for this article has been donated to Women Asylum Seekers Together in London, which she chairs

Source

• refugeewomen.com

Foreign Office Gets ‘Gay’ Kudos While Home Office Remains ‘Not Fit for Purpose’

HM Ambassador Ric Todd raising the rainbow flag over the British Embassy building on Aleje Ujazdowskie, Warsaw on 6 June.

Commentary from UK Gay News

Gay men and women seeking refuge in UK still get rough deal as Rainbow Flag flies on embassies

Over the past week, the UK Government has earned itself considerable praise world-wide after flying ‘Rainbow Flags’ on two embassies in Eastern Europe during Gay Prides in Latvia and Poland.

Yet while the two flags were proudly flying on embassies in Riga and Warsaw, there are gay men and women who are seeking sanctuary in the United Kingdom, having fled their countries under threat of execution or lengthy imprisonment because of their sexuality.

And they are not being given a fair and compassionate hearing.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, headed by David Miliband, should be commended on its work in the LGBT rights field overseas. It’s recently-publish guidelines made a refreshing change.

But while the FCO takes justifiable praise, the Home Office remains, in those immortal words uttered by a Home Secretary of a couple of years ago, “not fit for purpose” when it comes to considering applications for refuge from gay men and women.

Thanks to campaigners, and considerable publicity on his case in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper, nineteen year old gay Syrian Jojo Jako Yakobv has had his “day in court” (an immigration appeals tribunal) and has been released from a young offenders centre on orders from the tribunal.

But what was Jojo doing in a young offenders centre in the first place? What “offence” has he committed?

While it is still not certain that he will be granted refuge in the UK, things are looking far more hopeful that they were a month ago.

But for Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza, things are not so good.

She arrived in the UK in July last year, having fled her country after being severely beaten and burned by police purely on the grounds of her sexuality. In addition she was repeatedly raped while in custody.

Such were her injuries that when she sought medical help on arrival in UK doctors were so shocked at the extent of her injuries that the police were called.

Prossy left behind a girlfriend who is still believed to be in detention in Uganda.

The Home Office accepts that Prossy was brutally raped and burned. Yet they want to deport her back to Uganda, saying that she can settle in another town.

But a phone call to the FCO would probably tell the Home Office that there is little freedom of movement in Uganda, as we enjoy in Europe, and that a person wishing to relocate needs what amounts to a “reference” from one’s home town or village.

Meanwhile, Prossy, a 26 year old university educated Ugandan lesbian, lives in fear of deportation, via Yarl’s Wood, to Kampala.

The Metropolitan Community Church in Manchester has started a campaign “Prossy Must Stay”, and her story, and how you can help, can be read HERE.

The Home Office certainly needs to answer some questions. Do they ever consult the Foreign and Commonwealth Office about situations in “problem countries” when it comes to matters of sexuality? Do they even read the “situation reports” published by such respected human rights groups as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch?

From judgements and reasons given for deportation to gay and lesbian refugee applicants – not to mention a statement in the House of Lords by a Home Office Minister a few months ago, it would seem doubtful.

UK Gay News has actually heard an immigration appeal tribunal in Birmingham tell a gay Iranian, who fled his country when the ‘religious police’ knocked on the door of his home to arrest him, that he should be returned to Iran where he could make an “application to the British Embassy in the usual way”.

And in another case involving an Iranian, a tribunal questioned the discrepancy in dates on an application and accompanying paperwork, refusing to believe that the calendar used is not the same as used in the West. Application was refused.

There might be very good reason why some applications from refugees are turned down. And it is accepted that this can be a very emotive subject.

But from where UK Gay News stands, it looks as though the Home Office is making decisions, sometimes literally life or death, to hit deportation targets, which in turn pleases the UK tabloids.
At the end of the day, the UK is not ruled by the largely xenophobic and anti-gay tabloid press.

The government should return to the traditional “British way” of compassion based on fairness and forget the emotive and ‘anti’ language of the tabloids.

One can but hope that the lead taken by David Miliband at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is noted – and acted upon – by Jacqui Smith at the Home Office.