LGBT Asylum News appeal: please consider a donation

LGBT Asylum News has been described as "invaluable", "indispensable" and "an essential service" - Now we need your support and donations. Producing the website does come with a cost and here's where you can help.

Ugandan refugee and co-founder of the Lesbian Immigration Support Group, Prossy Kakooza, says:

"When I was an asylum seeker looking for support, I found people and groups who were able to help me navigate the labyrinth of the asylum process. And I found them through LGBT Asylum News"

Please consider making a donation via PayPal to account paul.canning@gmail.com or make a direct payment to Halifax Bank of Scotland, sort code: 111431 account #: 00105866 Note: If they use a credit or debit card on PayPal there will be a small fee. You can decide to pay this or pass it on.

Here's how we describe what we do:

We document the situations in countries from which LGBT people are fleeing hoping for a safe haven and the problems they can face from the asylum system in many countries.

We know this helps LGBT people gain their right of sanctuary.

Stories featured on LGBT Asylum News regularly feature elsewhere online, we're a source for the reference website asylumlaw.org plus we're asked for comment.

In the background, we also help individuals and refer on the many enquiries we get, often from desperate people.

Since we were established in January 2008 to help save 19yo gay Iranian Mehdi Kazemi from deportation to execution by the British government, our audience across web, email, social media and other routes has grown to c250k in 2010.

See below for testimony about the value of LGBT Asylum News

Now we need your support. Producing the website does come with a cost and here's where you can help.

Please consider making a donation via PayPal to account paul.canning@gmail.com or make a direct payment to Halifax Bank of Scotland, sort code: 111431 account #: 00105866 Note: If they use a credit or debit card on PayPal there will be a small fee. You can decide to pay this or pass it on.

Thank you. Your support is greatly appreciated.

What others have to say about LGBT Asylum News

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Prossy Kakooza: Kato "a hero and an inspiration"

David Kato

By Prossy Kakooza

It is three years and six months since I came to Britain from Uganda to ask for asylum because of my sexuality. Yet it feels like yesterday – especially with the recent news coming from my home country, which has brought back a lot of bad memories.

Hearing about the murder of the Ugandan gay rights campaigner David Kato was heartbreaking. I first heard of him when I was a young lesbian just coming to terms with who I was. Every single day there was a new threat to his life, but he stood tall and unwavering in the face of opposition. So many unknown gay people were disappearing one minute and turning up dead the next in mysterious circumstances; Kato was one of the few people who dared to ask why it happened. Before he died, he had just won a case stopping all major homophobic newspapers from "naming and shaming" gay people in Uganda. For me he was a hero, because he was my voice.

Following that news, it was very sad for me to hear that a lesbian from Uganda, known for legal reasons only as BN, was at Yarl's Wood awaiting deportation, on the grounds that the Home Office did not believe she was gay. Fortunately she has been granted a temporary reprieve. I can relate to this and know how hard it is to get asylum in the UK.

A lot happened to me in Uganda before I came to seek refuge here. I was imprisoned for being gay. I was also gang-raped, badly burned and beaten in a police station.

I managed to escape with the help of a family member. Naively, when I reached England I sighed in relief, thinking it was the end of my suffering and that I was going to be protected straight away – it never occurred to me that I was about to embark on the longest and toughest fight of my life. The asylum system is ruthless and can be very brutal.

Read more »

LGBT asylum discussed on BBC Radio Four

By Paul Canning

BBC Radio Four's Women's Hour reached over three million listeners last week in a segment about LGBT asylum which LGBT Asylum News helped organise.

Veteran presenter Jenni Murray spoke with Prossy Kakooza , a Ugandan who finally won UK asylum last year after a long campaign, and Ruth Hunt, Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Stonewall, about their new report on LGBT asylum.

Kakooza told Murray about what she had fled from. How did her family react when they discovered she was a lesbian?

"Not very well. I think it was worse by the fact that I was 'caught red-handed'. It was my family who marched me to the police, naked. Later, when I got out of the prison, I was going to be sacrificed. There's a belief, when something like that happens, to take the curse out of the family, you have to die. I heard them discussing it."

"At the police station I was savagely attacked. I was raped by four different men and burnt."

"It's seven years to life imprisonment in Uganda - and now they are discussing the death penalty."

"I was able to escape because I was in charge of the finances in the business I had with my mother and my brother helped me to escape at night - I was tied up. I paid a lot of money to an agent in town to help me come here."

"Here, I went to Croydon [the UK Border Agency office]. I was interviewed by a lady who wasn't very sympathetic, but I suppose that's their job. I was transferred to Bolton [near Manchester] and I was in so much pain. I went to a [hospital] and the nurses refused to touch me, they called the police who took me somewhere where they examined my injuries and reports were made. It was a very traumatic time."

"[Despite this evidence] at first the [Border Agency] said it was false, but then they had to concede. In my case they did believe I was a lesbian but they still refused me to stay."

"They said that I'm an intelligent, educated women and I could relocate in Uganda. This would be impossible. Uganda is not the same as the UK where a young lady can move from home and live in a different town without family ties, living a normal life. You are expected to have family protection [in Uganda]."

"In the end I won not so much because of the evidence presented but because of the successful campaign. There was an internet campaign with more than 5000 signatures online and more than 3000 on paper. It was only because they considered me to be - in inverted commas - an 'activist'. They said my profile is high in Uganda and it would be easy to recognise me. It was unfortunate that they did not rely so much on the evidence that was in front of them."

"I can't tell you how traumatic the process was. This was only a couple of months after everything had happened to me and you're talking to people who are looking you in the eye and saying 'you're lying'. It's the worst thing that can happen, especially if you have been raped. I tried to commit suicide and spent three weeks in hospital because I just couldn't cope."

"Now the future is good. I'm going back to University, I have a lot of friends around me, I go to Manchester Metropolitan Community Church. But I have a partner back home who is still in prison and some days you really can't cope."

Ruth Hunt, from Stonewall, talking about the LGBT asylum seekers they'd spoken with to compile their report 'No Going Back', described Prossy as "lucky' because she was able to get a successful campaign going.

Asked how the system should change, Hunt said "the first thing is stop applying the 'discretion test'. They can go back and just because they were raped before they won't be raped again. New Zealand, Australia has abandoned this, there's an acceptance that being gay is your human right."

"We can't apply British standards to what sort of behaviour we expect [of LGBT] - one Border Agency staff member told us he would expect someone to have read Oscar Wilde, this is preposterous."

• Listen to the segment (may not be available outside the UK)
• Stonewall's Report 'No Going Back'

LGBT asylum in the UK: Barriers facing LGB&T asylum seekers

LGBT asylum groups support hundreds of LGBT asylum seekers every year, but there are still no accurate statistics as to the number of LGBT asylum seekers currently in the UK.

According to refugee experts, many of the LGBT asylum seekers that they work with come from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Jamaica, Uganda, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan, and South Africa.

Phil Woolas, Minister of State for borders and immigration, courted controversy earlier this month when he posted an article on labourlist.org which celebrated the Labour government’s work with LGBT refugees and claimed that LGBT asylum seekers could march at London Pride “free from fear.”

"BE DISCREET"

However in the same article Woolas spoke of the “be discreet” policy - expecting LGBT asylum seekers to go back to the country where they are fleeing from and be discreet about their sexuality. Woolas stated: “The Court of Appeal has found, in line with our policy that whether a gay claimant can reasonably be expected to tolerate behaving discreetly is something that must be considered on the individual merits of the case."

LGBT asylum campaigners like Paul Canning of LGBT Asylum News and the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration group were quick to pick up on Woolas’ comments and drew attention to improvements that urgently need to be made in UK asylum policy and to protect asylum seekers when in the UK.

UKLGIG diplomatically welcomed Woolas' statement, but said that they would "modify and question some of his comments", based on their experience of supporting LGBT asylum seekers throughout the asylum process, and forwarded a series of recommendations.

UKLGIG highlight the lasting dangers of “be discreet”, they state “such an argument does not acknowledge that fears of repercussions along with internalised homophobia and shame usually are the - very damaging - reasons for such ‘keeping quiet’ or ‘staying in the closet’.

Kerry Maskell Project Coordinator of the Lesbian Community Project in Manchester works with many asylum seekers in the city who identify as lesbian and bisexual.

Maskell backs up UKLGIG’s stance and stresses the dangers of effectively telling people to go home and be discreet; "It is mentally damaging and stressful to have the freedom to be yourself and then have to go back to living a lie.

“Also, the ‘be discreet’ argument can often mean that people will feel forced to marry in order to protect themselves. I’m sure that many heterosexual people would not like the idea of having to pretend to be gay to fit in and certainly wouldn’t like having to marry and/or have sex with someone to hide their sexuality.

“We see people who have just arrived. They come in scared and quiet, afraid to talk to others or about themselves. We see them gain confidence and become vibrant wonderful people. Why would anyone want to take that away from them and put them back to being the people they were when they arrived?"

SAUDI ARABIA

A female asylum seeker from Saudi Arabia who Maskell has recently worked with has been told to go home and be discreet. She fled the country when her sister, who was also gay, disappeared from a safe house in her own country. She does not know what happened to her sister, only that she is dead.

Maskell said: “Our group member fled the country with her two sons, who are not aware of her sexuality. She does not want to tell her sons or fully ‘come out’ until she knows that she can stay in the country as she fears, if people find out, she will be killed if she is sent home. She was told in court that, as she is not out in this country, she may as well go back to her own country and not be out there! She did win her case but the Home Office appealed against it and she now has to go through the whole process again.”

UGANDA

Canning highlights the case of Ugandan gay asylum seeker John Bosco. In Uganda gay people face a prison sentence from 11 years to a life-long sentence and in 2005 same-sex marriage was criminalized. Despite an organised anti gay campaign against Bosco in his homeland he was deported back there in September 2008. After a long and frustrating campaign Bosco has now won leave to remain in the UK.

The case of Prossy Kakooza who also fled Uganda has been well documented, she came to the UK in July 2007 after her family discovered she was a lesbian. She was arrested, ill-treated in custody, and then her family tried to kill her before she managed to escape. Kakooza was finally granted asylum in the UK 17 October 2008, 15 long months and 3 court cases after first applying.

The UK aren’t the only country who operate the “be discreet” policy. An Iranian refugee who has now been granted asylum in the UK originally escaped to Turkey, where he was sent back to Iran and told to be discreet.

However, Jacob Matthews from the Manchester based LGBT asylum support group Gay in the UK points out that the UK are currently lagging behind other EU member states in terms of LGBT asylum. He says: “countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands have reputations of a fairer asylum system for LGBT asylum seekers and refugees.”

MORE TIME & BETTER INFORMATION

Another recommendation UKLGIG encouraged Woolas to take on board was to monitor the quality of the country information used in assessing asylum applications by LGBT persons more rigorously.

In October 2008, the independent governmental Advisory Panel on Country Information published a very critical review of the quality and quantity of information on LGBT issues within the country of origin information (COI) prepared and used by the UKBA in their decision making.

JAMAICA

UKLGIG highlighted the case of a Jamaican lesbian, who was told to go back to her homeland because she would be in no danger as she was over 40 and therefore no longer sexually attractive.

In Jamaica same sex relationships are illegal for men (punishable by ten years hard labour), for women homosexuality is legal but not surprisingly in a country that views male homosexuality as a criminal offence, lesbian and bisexual women struggle. Maskell adds: “My volunteer’s girlfriend is Jamaican. She was living in this country for 5 years as an ‘out’ lesbian. She has now had to return to her own country and is finding life very difficult. She is depressed and is finding it very hard not to be herself.”

CLEARER INSTRUCTIONS FOR IMMIGRATION STAFF

Another recommendation from UKLGIG is that there needs to be clear instructions on LGBT issues on asylum policy instruction. UKLGIG have been requesting such an instruction from the UKBA to guide their staff for a long time. They are considering the option of getting a full inclusion (not merely a mention) of LGBT issues in the existing gender API instead.

Matthews also feels that there should be clearer instructions for staff involved in the immigration process. Mathews comments: "I think refugee law should specifically state persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for making an asylum claim. I think the current category of 'other social group' is too vague, and results in asylum claims on these grounds being disregarded."

IMPROVED TRAINING

UKLGIG also suggest UK Border Agency workers need more comprehensive training around LGBT issues in order to achieve fair decision making. UKBA have invited UKLGIG to make presentations to case workers on LGBT asylum issues, and the group recommend that Woolas monitors the progress of this training and ensures that it reaches staff throughout the borders agency.

TRANSLATORS & SOLICITORS

Maskell also suggests that a number of improvements are needed to create a fairer asylum system for LGBTs, she says: “Many of our women tell us that, during their initial interview, their words are not translated correctly, they are told that they are not allowed to say they are gay or it is best not to mention it as the translators employed will often be of the same country of origin or hold the same religious beliefs as those in the country they are fleeing.

“They should also put them in touch with solicitors who are ‘gay friendly’ and aware of the rights of gay people (one of our women was told by a solicitor that she shouldn’t talk about her sexuality as it was ‘against god’!). It is hard to get legal help as many solicitors, specialising in gay issues, do not accept legal aid clients and, as asylum seekers receive no money from the government, they cannot afford to access specialist help.”

Given the government’s strong record on granting LGBT rights and equality, LGBT asylum is an area in need of urgent attention. A process must be in place where cases are given the time to explain their circumstances and build up trusting relationships with case workers and solicitors, where refugee’s evidence is taken seriously and case workers are given detailed information about the homophobic and potentially fatal situations these people are trying to escape.

LGF online has given Mr Woolas’ Office the opportunity to comment on this issue, as soon as we receive a response it will be added to this story.

LGBT ASYLUM SUPPORT GROUPS

UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group
To contact UKLGIG, click here.

Gay in the UK (MANCHESTER)
Meets at 6pm on the first Monday of every month at Refugee Action, 23-27 Edge Street, Manchester M4 1HW. For more information: lgbtisocial@yahoo.co.uk contact Anna Webster on 0161 831 5455.

Lesbian Community Project (asylum group)
To contact LCP and find out more, click here.

Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration, new refugee advocacy organization with a focus on LGBTs that launched in June. Visit www.oraminternational.org.

LGBT IRAQI FUNDRAISER (LIVERPOOL)

Source

Prossy Can Stay!

News from Manchester that Ugandan lesbian Prossy Kakooza has won her battle for asylum in the UK as the judge ruled in her favour and the Home Office are not going to appeal against the judge's decision.

Prossy issued the following statement:

Dear friends: I get to stay!! Am still in shock, and am so sure it's going to take days to sink in. But I have not stopped smiling since 12:00pm today, and won't stop for a while.

I went with my friend Gwen and am so glad I did because when we left I was in a sort of daze! When this woman handed me the paper and said, "You have been granted leave to remain" my jaw nearly hit the floor. Always the pessimist, I thought this was where she told me "but the Home Office is appealing". So Iasked if they were and she said no they were not. I had a bit of a hooray shout when we got out - couldn't contain it.

You have held me together, you have held me upright when all I wanted to do was roll up in a heap and give up. You gave me the motivation to go on and fight! Going with me to places to collect signatures, encouraging people to sign online, coming to meetings, writing statements, going to court with me, and most importantly - all the prayers. And I don't think you have any idea how the phone calls, texts and emails help. They kept me sane.

There are no appropriate words I can use to say thank you. All I can do is pray to my God to bless you all. You have changed my life and for that I will forever be grateful. THANK YOU!

Lots and lots of love, hugs and kisses,

Prossy

She had received a great deal of support including:

• 5200 people from countries, and church congregations, from all over the world who have signed her petition to the Home Office asking that she be allowed to stay;
• 100s of people who have written or emailed the Immigration Minister;
• the 80 members and friends of MCC Manchester who have supported her with their love, prayers, money and concern;
• the 19 friends who went to court with her and helped her collect signatures on her petition at Pride festivals all over the country;
• the ten friends who gave evidence in court on her behalf;
• Ruth Heatley from the Immigration Aid Unit and barristers Mark Schwenk and Mel Plimmer, the lawyers who drafted and prepared her case.

Prossy fled Uganda after being tortured and raped by police officers.

Her family had discovered Prossy and her partner in bed together and had marched them, naked, to the police station where they were detained. Prossy was subjected to horrific sexual attacks and physical torture. She escaped to the UK after her family bribed the guards to release her - as they wanted to deal with their family shame by having Prossy killed.

The Home Office denied her asylum and the original judge believed Prossy's claim to have been raped and tortured but felt it would be safe to return her to a different part of Uganda.

Prossy won at a hearing on 3rd July. A senior Immigration Judge dismissed a previous Immigration Tribunal ruling which denied Prossy asylum, calling the judgement "a mess". This ruling allowed Prossy to present her claim afresh.

Prossy Kakooza news

Prossy's petition has thus far garnered 4, 508 signatures.

Prossy won at a hearing on 3rd July. A senior Immigration Judge dismissed a previous Immigration Tribunal ruling which denied Prossy asylum, calling the judgement "a mess".

This ruling allowed Prossy to present her claim afresh to an Asylum Tribunal. This hearing would likely look at the possibility of "internal relocation" in Uganda and examine her identity as an out and proud lesbian in the UK.

So Prossy's case was presented Friday 5th September at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in Manchester.

A number of Prossy's friends volunteered to write statements and give evidence in person in court. The case lasted all morning, included evidence from ten people and arguments by the Home Office Presenter and by Prossy's barrister, the excellent Melanie Plimmer.

The normal practice in the Asylum Tribunals is for the judge to reserve judgement. The Judge must make her decision in the next ten days but it will take three to four weeks before the Home Office let Prossy know this decision. This means that the judgement is issued by post some weeks after the hearing. Sometimes there can be quite a long wait after the hearing to get the judgement.

Please keep Prossy, Ruth, her solicitor, and Melanie, her barrister, in your thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks.

• Campaign website

LGBT asylum briefs

New facebook group supporting Prossy Kakooza

Newsweek: Heard On the Street
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a lucky man. Even Amir supports him. Amir is a gay Iranian who left the country five years ago and now lives with his boyfriend in London. (He uses a pseudonym because he still hasn't told his family about his sexual orientation.) When Ahmadinejad claimed during a question-and-answer session at Columbia University last week that no gays lived in Iran, "[it] made me laugh," says Amir. "Ahmadinejad is an ignorant and uncultured man who doesn't know much about anything beyond the world of radical Muslims and Revolutionary Guards." Yet Amir was incensed at the hectoring introduction from Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, during which he described his guest as "a petty and cruel dictator." "He is still the elected president of my country," Amir says. "Insulting him in front of the world is insulting all Iranians."

"Listen, as a gay man living in Iran, I couldn't express myself and be what I am. My brother went to jail for eight years because he opposed this regime. Two of my cousins were killed because they were communists. Despite all that, if one day America or Israel attack Iran, I'll go back and defend my country. I'll do that regardless of who is the president and how gay people are treated in Iran." That's the voice Washington should be listening to, not Ahmadinejad's.

Russian gay community will picket the Embassy of Iran to protest against executions of homosexuals
Activists of Russian gay movement intend July 19 to picket the Embassy of Iran in Moscow for the third time to protest against prosecution of sexual minorities in that country.

"We sent letters to the President of Russia and Iran ambassador to Russia, and we picketed the Embassy of Iran in Moscow. This year should not be an exception. We need to continuously remind the state authorities [of Iran] that the death penalty must be abolished," Nikolay Alexeyev, the picket and Moscow gay parade initiator, said.

Russian gay community organized similar pickets in 2006 and 2007, on the day of execution by Iran authorities of two teenagers charged with homosexual relations in 2005. Alexeyev said that members of Russian gay movement had from the start "made continuous protests against this medievalism.


Despite his attempts to start a new life in Scotland, the Home Office ordered the deportation gay Syrian JoJo Yakob in March and, last week, his appeal against the decision was denied.

The ruling by the Asylum Immigration Tribunal, sitting in Glasgow, states: "Syria criminalises and represses homosexuality. Homosexuals have to modify their behaviour and lifestyle accordingly. We find no evidence that in Syria (Yakob] would conduct himself other than discreetly to avoid repercussions."

The tribunal concluded that case law does not allow homosexuals from repressive countries to international legal protection.

Women fundraise to support returned Nigerian lesbian
“In Nigeria, as an openly gay woman, I suffer homophobic abuse and violence. I am homeless and at the mercies of strangers. If my ex-husband and his family find out I am in Nigeria my life would be in further danger.”

Grace Ogunsola was refused asylum and deported when the Home Office and courts refused to acknowledge the dangers faced by lesbian women in Nigeria. She is homeless and survives on handouts or by occasionally turning to prostitution. She was unable to raise money for a much needed operation and has now been diagnosed HIV+.

Previously in Nigeria, Ms Ogunsola survived rape and other violence including an attempt on her life by her husband. She was trafficked to Britain in March 2005, and forced into prostitution to pay the agent who helped her escape. She was detained for over a year in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre where she started a relationship with a woman and came out publicly as a lesbian. In November 2006, she was deported despite widespread public support including from Black Women’s Rape Action Project, her MP, the Metropolitan Community Church and Wages Due Lesbians. Increasingly repressive legislation and media witch-hunts have resulted in many so-called “failed asylum seekers” like Ms Ogunsola being deported back to rape, other torture and even death.

“Now is the time for prominent lesbian and gay people, including politicians and those from high profile organisations to defend the civil, human and legal rights of those of us seeking asylum - being an immigrant and fleeing persecution is a ‘gay issue’. Those who don’t support asylum seekers are upholding a different standard of ‘equality’ depending on whether someone has the right passport, skin colour, accent . . . ”

Wages Due Lesbians is fund-raising to help Ms Ogunsola.
For more information:
Phone: 0207 482 2496
Email: wdl@allwomencount.net


Omar Kuddas reports

Amnesty International has issued a strong criticism of the way in which the Netherlands handles individuals whose requests for asylum have been refused and who are awaiting deportation. The human rights organisation says that they are too often, and for far too long, unnecessarily locked up.

It believes that detention is being used more and more frequently to deter potential immigrants and asylum seekers. It also points out that foreigners placed in detention must follow the same regime as criminals, even though illegal residence is not, in the Netherlands, punishable in this way.

Finally, the organisation is calling for a better complaints handling procedure. It says that the number of complaints about mistreatment by guards is increasing, but that little or nothing is being done with them.


Bisexual woman to be deported from Canada to Nigeria
A victim of sexual violence and domestic abuse in her home country, Okojie says she fled Nigeria after being beaten by locals in her village and detained in prison after it was discovered she was bisexual.

"In Nigeria things are very bad for lesbians and gay people," says Okojie. "If you are a bisexual or lesbian or gay you can be stoned to death and you can be sentenced to prison for many many years. The government doesn't care."


Village Voice: Gay Arabs Party Here, Risk Death Back Home
Even in the Internet age, a savvier new breed of immigrants must deal with violence from the old country and family pressures.

Guardian: Talent going to waste
Having fled persecution, war and even torture back home, highly qualified refugees face huge obstacles finding work in the UK

Evo Morales Ayma, the president of the Republic of Bolivia: This European targeting of illegal immigrants is hypocritical, draconian and undiplomatic

An Interview with Arsham Parsi, Director of Iranian Queer Organization

Prossy Kakooza wins latest fight

By Andy Braunston

Ugandan Lesbian Prossy Kakooza today won the latest fight in her battle for asylum in the UK.

A senior immigration judge dismissed a previous Immigration Tribunal ruling, denying Prossy asylum, calling the judgement "a mess".

Prossy fled Uganda after being tortured and raped by police officers.

Her family had discovered Prossy and her partner in bed together and had marched them, naked, to the police station where they were detained. Prossy was subjected to horrific sexual attacks and physical torture. She escaped to the UK after her family bribed the guards to release her - as they wanted to deal with their family shame by having Prossy killed.

The Home Office denied her asylum but the original judge believed Prossy's claim to have been raped and tortured but felt it would be safe to return her to a different part of Uganda.

This ignored the facts, and case law, which suggests that someone who has been so mistreated by the state is likely to suffer similar mistreatment in the future.

Today's ruling allows Prossy to present her claim afresh to an asylum tribunal. This hearing is likely to take place in the autumn where Prossy's claim will be looked at, the possibility of "internal relocation" in Uganda examined and her identity as an out and proud lesbian in the UK considered.

• Visit the campaign website to find out more and how you can help.
• Prossy Kakooza Must Stay
  

gayasylumuk wants more to sign petition to Gordon Brown

MEDIA RELEASE
15TH June

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

gayasylumuk wants more to sign petition to Gordon Brown

The campaigning group gayaylumuk today called on all those moved by the plight of the 19-yo Iranian Mehdi Kazemi to support other lesbian and gay asylum seekers at risk of return to torture and possible death.

The group is calling on all British people outraged by government policy to sign the petition to Gordon Brown (at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/).

This petition, established by Durham Methodist minister Walter Attwood, says: 'we the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop deporting gays and lesbians to countries where they may be imprisoned, tortured or executed because of their sexuality'.

The petition has almost 3000 signatures but needs many more to achieve significance in the Number Ten petitions system, established by Downing Street to affect and inform policy.

The group has also established an international petition to support Prossy Kakooza, a 26-year-old lesbian woman seeking asylum in the UK. She fled Uganda after suffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexual orientation. Her application has been refused with Prossy being told she can return and 'be discrete' when this is not an option in Uganda.

International petition for Prossy http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ProssyKakooza/

We are also highlighting the cases of:

* Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian threatened by the British government with deportation to torture and possible death by stoning.
* Gay Syrian refugee JoJo Jako Yakob, who fled his homeland two years ago after being arrested, shot and beaten.
* Babakhan 'Babi' Badalov, a target of repression and persecution as an openly gay radical artist and poet in Azerbaijan.

Their claims for asylum has all been dismissed.

Spokesperson Paul Canning said, "LGBT refugees fleeing torture and possible murder are routinely being refused asylum because of UK government policy. This is at the same time as British embassy's abroad are flying the rainbow flag — it's hypocritical."

"Many other countries, such as Holland, the United States and Sweden do not treat LGBT asylum seekers this way and the evidence shows that there is no 'flood' if you adopt humane policies. The government needs to change its shameful attitude and we are calling on British people to tell them it is, indeed, shaming."

gayasylumuk is a campaign group established by Omar Kuddas. It has supporters in the UK, USA, Europe and around the world.

Further information about Prossy, Pegah, JoJo and Babi can be found on 'LGBT asylum news (formally Save Mehdi Kazemi)', the campaign's website http://www.medhikazemi.com

Further information on Rev. Walter Attwood http://www.durhamdeernessmethodist.org.uk/ministers.shtml

-- ENDS --

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).

Severe threats to Ugandan LGBT

Ugandan bishop attacks European attitude towards gays

An Anglican bishop has urged the government of Uganda to keep homosexuality illegal.
Eria Paul Luzinda of the Mukono diocese said that "not all that comes from Europe is superior and must be taken up."

"I have been hearing that gays are demanding that the government should legalise their activities," Bishop Luzinda said, according to the Daily Monitor.

"This is absurd because God created a man and woman so that they can produce and fill this world.

"The government should not be tempted to legalise this backward culture which is bound to destroy this country."

In 2007 Bishop Luzinda condemned the decriminalisation of adultery by the Ugandan Constitutional Court.

Last week three gay rights activists forced their way into an international conference about HIV/AIDS prevention in Uganda.

Their protest was sparked when the head of Uganda's AIDS commission said that gay people are driving up the number of infections in the country, but would not be targeted with prevention work.

The international meeting was organised by an international group including the US, the World Bank, the UN.

More than a million of Uganda's 27 million people are already HIV+.

The three protesters have been released from jail but are to face charges.

Uganda's penal code carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for homosexual conduct, while 'attempts' at carnal knowledge get seven years of imprisonment.

A poll in August 2007 found that 95% of Ugandans want homosexual acts to remain illegal.
Government officials have regularly threatened and harassed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans.

In 2005 Uganda became the first country in the world to introduce laws banning same-sex marriage.

Last summer an organisation called Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a coalition of four LGBT organisations, launched a campaign called "Let us Live in Peace."

At a press conference in Kampala the group condemned discrimination and violence against LGBT people, as well as the life-threatening silence about their sexualities in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.

In response, Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told the BBC that homosexuality was "unnatural."

He denied charges of police harassment of LGBT people, but also declared, "We know them, we have details of who they are."

In response to the SMUG press conference the first anti-gay rally in the country's history and was organised by the Uganda Joint Christian Council.

UJCC member churches include the Roman Catholic and Anglican Church of Uganda.

Source: clericalwhispers

• Prossy Kakooza Must Stay - Ugandan lesbian refused asylum by UK government
• Uganda is the new Zimbabwe

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.

Prossy Kakooza Must Stay

Prossy Kakooza is a 26-year-old woman seeking asylum in the UK. She fled Uganda after suffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexual orientation.

Prossy had been forced into an engagement when her family discovered her relationship with the girlfriend she met at university, Leah. Both women were marched two miles naked to the police station, where they were locked up.

Prossy’s inmates subjected her to gross acts of humiliation. She was violently raped by police officers who taunted her with derogatory comments like ‘’we’ll show you what you’re missing’’ and ‘’you’re only this way because you haven’t met a real man’’. She was also scalded on her thighs with hot meat skewers.

Prossy was eventually taken out of prison after her father bribed the guards. Her family had decided they would sacrifice her instead, believing this would ‘’take the curse away from the family’’.

Whilst her family were making arrangements to slaughter her, Prossy managed to flee to the United Kingdom to seek asylum.

When Prossy went for treatment to her local GP’s surgery in the UK they were so shocked by the extent of her injuries they called the police.

She was taken to the St. Mary’s Centre in Manchester, and she is still receiving counselling there for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Prossy’s asylum application has been refused by the Home Office, who acknowledge she was brutally raped and burnt because of the medical evidence, but have dismissed these appalling attacks as ‘’the random actions of individuals’’, and state she can be returned to a different town in Uganda.

This judgement ignores the clear danger to gay people throughout the country where the penalty for homosexuality is life imprisonment.

Also, in Uganda, you cannot settle in a new town without a reference from your previous village, and on the basis she is a lesbian, Prossy would be subjected to similar persecution wherever she went.

We consider that if Prossy is sent back, she faces the continuing threat of incarceration, and further sickening attacks - which next time may be fatal.

Prossy is a highly educated woman who can be a productive member of society.

She has a right to be free with her sexuality, which is causing no harm to anyone, and she has a right not to be raped, attacked, or murdered.

How you can help

1. Download the petition, get it signed by yourself, your family, friends, work colleagues, drinking buddies and anyone else you know! Please return the petition to us so we can send it off to the Home Office - our address is at the bottom of the petition.

2. Write to Liam Byrne, the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration within the Home Office, copying the letter to us and any reply you receive. You can see a sample letter here.

You can email the Minister at this address:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Please ensure you put FAO Liam Byrne, Minister in the subject line. You could base the content of your message on the sample letter provided via the link above.

Or fax your letter to him on 0870 336 9034,
or write to him at:

Mr Liam Byrne
Minister of State for Borders and Immigration
Home Office
3rd Floor, Peel Buildings
2 Marsham St
London SW1 4DF

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