2011 round-up: Part six: Asylum and refugees

Image by gianlucacostantini via Flickr

By Paul Canning

I'm rounding up the year in a series of posts - in which no doubt I've missed something, so please let me know what I've missed in the comments!

Asylum and refugees

In May a Spanish academic estimated that 6000 LGBT Africans flee to Europe each year.

In the UK, authorities bureaucratically codified the landmark Supreme Court decision of 2010 ending the concept that refused asylum seekers could (and should) 'go home and be discreet' or relocate to avoid repression. They also began to record sexuality-based asylum claims.

This 'discretion' argument, widely employed to refuse asylum, was rejected by a US Ninth Circuit court in March but used in cases elsewhere.

In the Netherlands, 'westernization' after being in the country for a decade became an argument against the removal of an Afghan refugee, and by extension for others, that was accepted by the government. The Netherlands also created liberal rules for immigration of partners of gay people and said they'd consider extending a existing legal presumption in favour of LGBT asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan to those from Uganda.


In the UK in an important precedent a court accepted that an individual who does not live a ‘heterosexual narrative’ (i.e. have men ‘calling’ or have a boyfriend/husband and/or have children) can suffer persecution and therefore have an asylum claim in a Jamaican lesbian case.

In the US there were numerous formal complaints over the treatment of LGBT immigration detainees, which includes asylum seekers. The complaints included sexual abuse but the administration refused to extend rules offering protection against rape and other sexual abuse to criminals in jails to immigration detainees. A number of prominent 'undocumented' immigrants came out, including many young people in the movement for a DREAM act which would regularize the status of those brought to the US as children. There were reports that Mexican asylum seekers' claims in the US are increasingly being rejected, using the 'relocation=safety' argument.

Human rights groups started to focus on the position of LGBT in African refugee camps and the thousands believed to have made their way to relative safety in South Africa. The first LGBT refugee project started in May in South Africa. A landmark conference in Kampala in July covered the problem of LGBT refugees in East Africa.

In May the first public appearance of Iranian LGBT refugees happened in Turkey during Ankara Pride.

LGBT asylum seekers continue to face problems in Europe with campaigning attention in 2011 including: a Swiss attempt to remove a gay Iranian; a gay Cameroonian in France; several gay Ugandan, Burundian, Cameroonian and Nigerian cases in UK; a Norwegian gay Iraqi case; a transgender Turkish case in Austria. In Canada, a loud campaign in Toronto stopped the removal of a gay Nicaraguan, as did support for a Sri Lankan in Australia. Most - though not all - such cases demonstrated how campaigning can help stop removals. In the UK, in several cases, judges ordered the anonimization of lesbian and gay asylum seekers supposedly for their protection but also stemming both media coverage and campaigning highlighting such egregious asylum decisions.

In September a first comprehensive report showed prejudiced treatment of LGBT asylum seekers happening in many European countries. But in October, most EU nations adopted rules recognising repression for sexuality reasons as grounds for asylum claims and also gender identity for the first time. They also agreed to share best practice on treatment of LGBT asylum cases.

In Australia a law was passed clarifying protection rights for homosexual refugees.

It emerged in October that key global south LGBT activists are increasingly encountering visa problems when they are invited to events in western countries.

Azerbaijani gay artist Babi Badalov finally won asylum in France after being deported by the UK two years previously, then fleeing to Russia and finally reaching Paris.

In Canada, the conservative government reached out to LGBT groups and the community to support LGBT refugees - and provided funding to help. In the US the administration provided funding for a first LGBT asylum support project in Chicago and a new refugee route began to deliver LGBT to sanctuary in San Francisco.

In August a report confirmed significant progress in UNHCR and other agency handling of gay refugees, mostly Iranians, in Turkey, an example of growing engagement by UNHCR with the issue.

Related articles

• Voice of LGBT asylum seekers raised at Manchester Pride (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Paper: LGBT refugees looking for protection and safety: Challenges in refugee status determination and living conditions in Turkey. (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Contradiction in how Obama admin treating LGBT refugees (ilga.org)
• Norway refuses gay Iraqi asylum (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: Barcelona or Barsakh

"Barcelona or Barsakh" Trailer from Refugees Doc on Vimeo.

Trailer for the short-documentary about the struggle of Senegalese people risking their lives in their pursuit of reaching Spain, crossing the Atlantic Ocean for days in precarious fishing boats. Such perilous quest is rooted in the desertification of their habitat, absence of work and government support, and the lack of food due to massive fishing along the Senegalese coast by major foreign fishing companies. Our main protagonist, Keba, takes us along his journey as he prepares for another attempt to leave Senegal and illegally enter Spain by boat.

• More information on this documentary

Related articles

• Video: Interview with Marianna, Senegalese lesbian, asylum seeker (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Senegal: Religious Leaders Fuel Homophobia Says Amnesty International (mask.org.za)

In Spain, detained immigrants "treated like criminals"

Image by t.bo79 via Flickr

Source: IPS

By Inés Benítez

"It was very tough, like being in prison," says 29-year-old Algerian immigrant Sid Hamed Bouziane, in slow Spanish, about his 28-day stay at the Immigrant Detention Centre, or CIE, in the southern Spanish city of Málaga.

The Málaga CIE, established in 1990 in a former military barracks in the rundown neighbourhood of Capuchinos, is one of nine Spanish centres created to hold undocumented immigrants.

CIEs are defined in the country's immigration laws as non-correctional public facilities under the interior ministry, for detention in custody, at the behest of the justice authorities, of foreigners subject to deportation proceedings.

Social organisations, experts and institutions have repeatedly reported violations of human rights in the detention centres.

"They are prisons in disguise," Luis Pernía, president of the Platform for Solidarity with Immigrants in Málaga, told IPS. There is a "lack of democracy, legality and humanity" in these centres, which "exist only to justify the European Union's hypocritical migration policies," he argued.

In December 2009, a report titled "Situación de los Centros de Internamiento para Extranjeros en España" (Situation in the Immigrant Detention Centres in Spain) by the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees (CEAR) reported serious issues involving living conditions and legal protection in CIEs in Málaga, Valencia and Madrid, and found cases of torture of inmates in the Madrid CIE.

"The very fact of locking someone up for having emigrated is unacceptable," Salva Lacruz, in charge of CEAR's lobbying programme, told IPS from the southeastern city of Valencia, where the First National Meeting of Groups Against CIEs was held Oct. 21-23.

The goal of the meeting, which attracted some 30 associations from around the country, was to coordinate a national campaign aimed at shutting down the CIEs.

The detention centres are "black holes in the rule of law" that form part of a "circuit" which begins with strict border controls that force immigrants to travel in appalling conditions, such as in dangerous sea crossings from the north coast of Africa., said Lacruz.

Read more »

In first, husband of Brazilian man gets permanent residency

Image by jcoterhals via Flickr

Source: Associated Press

By Juliana Barbassa

Brazil's government for the first time has granted a foreign citizen the right to live permanently in the country based on a same-sex relationship with a Brazilian citizen, according to a notice published Monday in the country's Federal Register.

Spanish man, Antonio Vega Herrera, and his Brazilian partner live in the town of Aracatuba in Sao Paulo state.

The action grows out of an October ruling by country's Supreme Court that recognized same-sex marriage, giving gay couples the rights such as the ability to jointly file taxes and to jointly adopt a child.

Gay rights activists lauded the new announcement as an important victory.

"We're advancing our rights as part of a conversation about democracy in this country," said Julio Moreira, president of the Rio de Janeiro gay rights group Arco Iris, which means rainbow in Portuguese. "Our constitution says no one should be discriminated against, so we see this in the same terms as the fight against racism and sexism."

The next step is to push Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing those rights, Moreira said, so that each case doesn't have to be petitioned separately to the courts.

"The legal system is closing these gaps in rights, but Congress has to legislate to tie it all together," he said.

Related articles

• In Brazil, rising Christian evangelism behind LGBT rights pushback (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• More Progress on Gay Marriage in Brazil and...Poland? (care2.com)

Bi-national gay couple in Italy face being split up

Image via Wikipedia

Via dosmanzanas/Google

An Italian-Uruguayan gay couple married in Spain has denounced the judicial nightmare they're in in Italy.

The couple, whose identity was not revealed, met in Spain, where they married in 2010.

The problems began when the Italian spouse decided to return home due to the economic crisis. His husband applied for a residence permit, but he has been denied and is in danger of being deported.

The couple has filed an appeal to the civil court of Reggio Emilia, which should be decided within a month. According to gaynews.it, that court may decide to pass the case to the constitutional court.

This couple did not ask for their marriage recognized in Italy (as Italian and Spanish couple Ottavio Marzocchi and Joaquin Nogueroles have done). They just want to be allowed to live together.

Related articles

• More Progress on Gay Marriage in Brazil and...Poland? (care2.com)

Video: Interview with Zim lesbian refugee

Source: Toxic Lesbian

"In Africa you can die of being gay and nobody will care."

Spanish activist says '6000 homosexuals escape from Africa' every year

Alfredo Pazmiño

By Paul Canning

Translation by G H

Alfredo Pazmiño, president of the LGBT group Triangulo Foundation in the Canary Islands, told a conference 23 May that homophobia causes the exodus of around 6000 Africans to Europe every year.

He was speaking  to the Diario de Las Palmas newspaper at the second LGBT Human Rights of the African continent conference at The University of Las Palmas (ULPGC).

Pazmiño, who also organised the conference, explained that:

"This is an unknown situation in which a high number of African students come to Europe, not as asylum seekers, as they would not be able to do the paperwork in their home countries, but applying for scholarships through organisations like Triangulo Foundation or the Human Rights Office once it is palpable that their lives are at risk."

Pazmino highlighted the fact that many of the youngsters make the most out of this opportunity and study degrees such as sciences, Politics, Law or Sociology.

“It is amazing the fact that although they are very scared, they usually end up going back to their home countries” 

He also explained the case of the Ugandan activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, recent winner of the prestigious Martin Ennals award and who attended the University's first conference last year, who was a victim of so called 'corrective rape' when she was six years old:

"Although Kasha Nabagesera was raped twelve times by the whole community including family and teachers, she thought that it was essential for her to leave her country and then return to it because otherwise these corrective rapes would never end. She thought that she had to bring change to her community. All the young people who are in this conference are prepared and educated to bring this change. They will talk and fight using the most effective weapon, their face, their smile and good deeds and actions."

The Canary Islands is a destination and home for thousands of African migrants and refugees and the University has hosted a number of conferences on the flow of migrants.

In the conference (inaugurated by the Dean of ULPGC Jose Regidor, the Director of Casa de Africa, Ricardo Martinez and the mayor of Las Palmas Jeronimo Saavedra) renowned activists and experts such as Tunisian activist and researcher Moujib Errahame Khaldi discussing building homophobia in the Maghribian (North African) media.

Activists presented on the experience of LGBT in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Mozambique and Uganda. In Uganda, the conference heard, more than 20% of hate crimes are related to the sexual orientation of the victims and although we know about a couple like the case of David Kato, the majority of these cases are completely unknown to the media.

Regidor highlighted the fact that one of the main goals of the university is to fight for Human Rights:

"This conference looks for knowledge supporters so these people can start feeling that they are not alone in this fight to end with the jailing and the killing of people because of their sexual orientation."

Video: In Spain, art project captures lives of LGBT refugees

Testimonious de Rachel

Source: ToxicLesbian.org

Trash & Tension is an artistic and activist project deploying collaborative methods and created by Toxic Lesbian. It is centred on the causes of violence surrounding groups that continue to suffer from various forms of socio-underrepresentation, discrimination, and violence to this very day on the basis of their gender identity and sexual orientation.

In Spain and many other countries, these people are not granted the same level of protection that female victims of gender-based violence and other vulnerable minorities receive.

The project shall unfold in a series of events as a work in progress. Each event will spread its content via two platforms: first, in-person encounters with the participation of audience members and special guests and second, virtual distribution online of the content - either live or as follow-ups - by means of the various social networks of Toxic Lesbian and its partner organisations (RQTR, Merhaba, and Queeramnesty).

This event will open up a framework for dialogue on today's reality for people in sub-Saharan Africa who do not fit into the socially mandated binary categories and heterosexual definitions of gender identity and sexual orientation. Two refugees will share their first-hand experiences of persecution and an activist volunteering in Europe as part of a mainstream human rights organization will contribute perspectives from his work on this issue.

• Video (in Spanish)

Report: Morocco's much criticised treatment of migrants abetted by EU

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Global Detention Project

Traditionally a country of emigration, Morocco is also a key transit country for sub-Saharan migrants seeking passage to Europe. Since the early 2000s, the European Union (EU) has pressured—and provided funding to—Morocco to stem the flow of migrants transiting the country. Morocco introduced its first Migration Act in 2003, which provides stringent criminal sanctions for violations.¹ 

Observers have criticised a number of Moroccan immigration policies and practices, including the lengthy periods of time (in some cases years) foreign nationals are held in administrative detention; the practice of stranding  foreign nationals in the desert; detaining vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and children; and opening fire on migrants attempting to cross into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla (EMHRN 2010; Flynn 2006); and for the criminalisation of both irregular entry to and exit from the country (GADEM 2009). Additionally, rights groups have argued that officials routinely fail to strictly apply the provisions for the Migration Act (GADEM 2009; EMHRN 2010).

Observers have also directed criticism at the EU for abetting Moroccan immigration practices. A 2010 study concluded that EU cooperation with Morocco on immigration policy “runs the risk of contributing directly to the implementation of migration policies that are contrary to the basic rights of migrants and refugees” (EMHRN 2010, p.54).

Detention Policy

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US State Dept human rights report picks up LGBT asylum issues in UK

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The 35th annual human rights report of the US State Department has picked up on "significant disadvantages" experienced by LGBT asylum seekers in the UK.

In launching the report April 8 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew particular attention to the report’s identification of abuses against LGBT people internationally:

“Because I believe, and our government believes, that gay rights are human rights, we remain extremely concerned about state-sanctioned homophobia,” Clinton said.

She hoped that the reports which cover every country bar the US itself would "give comfort to the activists, will shine a spotlight on the abuses, and convince those in government that there are other and better ways.” They may also be used to bar aid to certain countries if the US Congress passes recently introduced legislation.

Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, told the Washington Blade that Clinton has made LGBT rights one of the State Department's top priorities. Expanded coverage of LGBT rights was begun last year but the 2010 reports show patchy coverage across Africa and the Middle East.

State Department interest in LGBT asylum

The UK report cited last year's Stonewall report 'No Going Back' and pulled out for mention its identification of the "fast tracking" of LGBT asylum claims, repeating Stonewall's finding that LGBT have complex cases and in "denying them quickly, UKBA staff did not give applicants time to talk openly about their sexual orientation."

Home Office Minister Damien Green told the House of Commons in February that the government did not accept that sexual orientation asylum claims are complex and therefore would not exclude them from 'fast track', as it does other types of cases.

Read more »

In Spain, NGOs win right of access to detention centres

Source: Migreurop

[Google translation]

We, the organizations belonging to the Spanish Migreurop [Abedie, Acsur, Andalucía Acoge, Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía, CEAR, Federación de SOS Racismo], welcome the resolution of Magistrate 6 Madrid, January 13 last dictation, defending the right of access for NGOs in the Centro de Extranjeros internamiento (CIEs) of Madrid, to ensure the rights of detainees, and directed management of the center to remove the obstacles currently impeding the exercise of this right of access.

Consider the resolution as a fundamental step on the path to the rights of strangers trapped in the CIEs.

Congratulations organizations Pueblos Unidos, SOS Racismo Madrid and the Ferrocarril Clandestino who, through their tenacity, have made this success possible.

Demand that the Spanish Government should take note of the basis for judicial resolution, incorporates the Regulation under the Foreigners Act (Ley de Extranjería) in development and takes into account the requests that we, social organizations , have sent him about it.

While arguing for the disappearance of CIEs, we require that their existence does not affect other rights that deprivation of freedom of movement, as reported in the judicial resolution.  To ensure this, we believe that the right of access in CIEs social organizations are exercising a right of paramount importance, as claimed by Migreurop throughout the EU.

• Migreurop's campaign for right of access to detention camps
• Map of camps (PDF)

Wikileaks, the US Embassy Cables and Migration Issues

Image via Wikipedia   

Source: Franck Duvell: Diary on Human Migration Research

When ‘Cable gate’ – Wikileak’s publication of the US embassies’ reports to the US State Department Washington - hit the headlines in November and December 2010 I was wondering whether there is anything in it for migration and migration policy researchers. So far, I am not aware whether anybody else has already gone through the documents, so I had a quick look. Unfortunately, only a fraction of all cables – 2000 out of 251,000 - are already published on Wikileaks’ website (http://213.251.145.96/cablegate.html).

In short, migration and refugee issues only play a very minor role in the set of documents I have sifted through. And where these are mentioned this is mostly in the context of terrorism, general threats to regional stability and security or with respect to Muslim minority communities. The first impression from these cables is that from the US American consular perspective migration as such is not considered a major issue and is not causing great anxiety whilst Muslim migration and minorities and to some extent border security are issues of concern.

Worldwide: Some reference to migration can be found in the already notorious ‘reporting and collecting needs’ issued by the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. For instance, the request for West Africa lines out to collect information on ‘population and Refugee Issues’, including ‘population movements in the region, and governments' involvement and response, indications of actual or potential refugee movements within or into the region, locations and conditions of refugee camps and informal refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) gathering sites and transit routes’ government capability and willingness to assist refugees and IDPs, health and demographic statistics of refugees and IDPs, dynamics and impact of migration and demographic shifts’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/04/09STATE37566.html). And also in Hungary information is requested on ‘demography, including ...migration’ and ‘plans and efforts to respond to declining birth rates, including through promotion of immigration’ (2009, http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/06/09STATE62393.html). Similar requests were sent to many other countries.

Read more »

Resource: The Global Detention Project

Norway's Trandum Detention Centre

The Global Detention Project (GDP) is an inter-disciplinary research endeavour that investigates the role detention plays in states’ responses to global migration, with a special focus on the policies and physical infrastructures of detention. The project, which was initiated in October 2006 with funding from the Geneva International Academic Network, is based at the Graduate Institute’s Programme for the Study of Global Migration.

To assess the growth and evolution of detention institutions, project researchers are creating a comprehensive database of detention sites that categorises detention facilities along several dimensions, including security level, bureaucratic chain of command, facility type (is a given site an exposed camp, a dedicated migrant detention facility, or a common prison), spatial segregation (are there separate cells for criminals and administrative detainees, for women and men), and size. This data is gradually being ported to the GDP website in the form of maps, lists, and country profiles. Eventually, the project intends to make the entire database fully interactive with the website.

In December the project released five new reports covering Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Belize and detention at Europe's borders.

Read more »

Colombian gay rights activist wins asylum in Spain

Source: Colombia Reports

On Monday, Spain's Ministry of the Interior granted political asylum to Colombian gay rights activist Manuel Velandia, on grounds of sexual discrimination, reports Velandia's blog.

Velandia said that "the granting of his asylum demonstrated that Spain fully acknowledges sexual diversity and that sexual orientation is a right which is violated in Colombia for lesbians, gays and bisexuals".

Co-founder of the Movement for Homosexual Liberation of Colombia in 1976, Velandia left his country in 2007 after a grenade attack was carried out against him, reports magazine Semana. The attack followed recurrent anonymous death threats against him and his family.

His request for asylum was made in San Sebastian through the Spanish Red Cross with the help from the Commission for Refugees in Basque Country and from Basque LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) organisation Gehitu.

Indeed, in this country, distributions of pamphlets for "social cleansing" threatening such minorities as homosexuals are regularly reported.

• Wikipedia: LGBT in Colombia

España concede asilo por discriminación sexual a homosexual colombiano

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Argentina refuses to recognise Canadian same-sex marriage, deportation threatened

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

Source: Tetu

By Mathilde Guillaume

[Google translation]

A Spanish woman could be deported because the demand for recognition of her civil marriage with an Argentine woman has been denied. Both women were married two years ago in Toronto, Canada, and Spain had already recognized their union.

"Let the world know that the foreign presence in the country is uneven, and that his temporary residence previously granted is revoked. His expulsion and prohibition to return to the country may be made within thirty days. "

This is the response of the Directorate of Migration has received the Spanish CP (who prefers to remain anonymous), age 42, when she asked what Argentina recognizes the civil marriage with Diana Argentina Cordero. Both women were married two years ago in Toronto, Canada, and Spain has already recognized their union, and sent them a family book. Until last December, she lived in Venezuela, but we were forced to move to Argentina due to problems of health of the mother of Diana Cordero. "Since then, it has been a complete disaster," says Argentina " She is an architect but can not work legally, and we can not access any of the economic rights guaranteed to other families while we are legally married. We feel like second-class citizens. "

A threat of expulsion gives a halt to LGBT rights in Argentina

 According to counsel the couple, Florencia Kravetz "the fact that the state refuses to recognize a marriage validated in another country violates the law of migration. That said, I hope I am wrong but I have little hope that justice shall grant the application of my client." The couple has filed a complaint with the National Institute against Discrimination (Inada), supported by the Argentine Federation LGBT (Falgtb). "They will pass over our bodies if necessary, says Maria Rachid, president of the association, but we will prevent the deportation and will assert the rights of the couple. "Uncertainty is unbearable, lamented Diana Cordero. It's like a sword of Damocles over our heads. We know they can come at any moment to return to Spain." The threat of expulsion, a few days after the opening of a Congressional debate over marriage for gay people represents a return back to the LGBT rights in Argentina.

~~~~~~

Mariée au Canada, une lesbienne espagnole est menacée d’expulsion en Argentine

Read more »

Gay Iranian wins asylum in Spain

Image by mojitopt via Flickr

Source: El Mundo

By Pedro Simón

[Google translation from Spanish]

The days when TV images gave the bodies of those dead gay guys swinging the rope, Ali covered her face with her pillow. Ali was a living dead man, 36 years and all the tickets to the gallows since that morning he looked into the eyes of a man and left him in the mirror, like a curse, who he was: a homosexual in Iran.

He was tortured by police, appointed by law, persecuted and imprisoned. He fled the country as he could and threw his bones in Spain. Since Monday is the first foreigner to achieve expressly asylum "persecution based on sexual orientation," an ember that brings the new rule, and calling Ali premieres mother only have the documentation, from a burger now shines more than El Bulli .

- What did you say?

- That I have the papers. But what I can not tell me anything. ... It would be terrible ... -. I lost my job, no money, I lost my partner-sets beaming. But I'm very, very, very happy.

The phrase fits because Ali knows the future of a person who is gay and lives in Iran, one of the nine countries of the world where they kill you for being so. A dozen people, some of them gay-teen is waiting to be executed by Tehran, the Nemat Safavi case to the head, a 16-year-old accused of sodomy and who have made the collective banner of half the world . Ali would be in the list. Narrowly escaped.

"I went with Firouz, my partner, to a birthday party. We were all homosexuals. We got together in secret. Because he was the only way to feel free and normal. Then the police pulled down the door and took us all. We were insulted. To me they were tortured for a week. As we were, shouting: 'Fags, the next day we will kill you "

At the crossroads, the couple took opposite paths. Ali left behind his job in an office job and paid the mafia to the first destination as possible. The place was Spain.

In December 2008, Iranian stepped Barajas airport seeking asylum and after a month was welcomed by the Inn of the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) in Malaga. From what he has absorbed Ali Malaga this year without wives. In Malaga dreams and hopes.

"He has made many friends and is very dear," says David Cedeño, provincial president of colleagues, a collective dedicated to equality of homosexuals. "He always says he was imprisoned a week, but that his prison has lasted 36 years"

Bethlehem Amaro, Cear counsel, told him so when he applied for asylum Ali "What makes his case exceptional, more serious than that of other refugees is that he chose the cause of their persecution. Others may choose to a thing or not, be Cristano, or adulterers, or be protesters against a regime. But Ali did not choose to be homosexual. "

There will be much, but colleagues from Malaga has put a nail of gold this Christmas with Ali and not everything that Allah the basket raffle will be for him to fly away now that 27 December has left the nest. In Malaga Malaga dreams and hopes. How will Firoux.

~~~~~~

Alí gana el combate

Interior da por primera vez asilo a un solicitante alegando expresamente que es perseguido por su homosexualidad

PEDRO SIMÓN

Los días en que la televisión daba imágenes de los cuerpos de aquellos chicos gays balanceándose sin vida de la soga, Alí se tapaba la cara con la almohada. Para que madre no oyera aquel hipar. Para que padre no tirara de aquella manta.

Era un muerto vivo Alí, 36 años y todos los boletos para el cadalso desde esa mañana en que se miró en los ojos de un hombre y en el espejo le salió, como un maleficio, quién era él: un homosexual en Irán.

Fue torturado por la Policía, señalado por la ley, vejado y encerrado. Huyó del país como pudo y dio con sus huesos en España. Desde ayer es el primer extranjero que logra el asilo expresamente por «persecución por orientación sexual», un rescoldo que trae la nueva norma y que estrena Alí llamando a madre nada más tener la documentación, desde una hamburguesería que hoy resplandece más que El Bulli.

- ¿Qué le has dicho?

- Que tengo los papeles. Pero de lo mío no le puedo decir nada. Sería terrible... Perdí el trabajo, no tengo dinero, perdí a mi pareja -enumera radiante-. Pero hoy estoy muy, muy, muy feliz.

La frase encaja porque Alí sabe del devenir de una persona que sea gay y viva en Irán, uno de los nueve países del orbe donde te matan por ser así. Una docena de personas homosexuales -algunos de ellos adolescentes- está a la espera de ser ejecutada por Teherán, con el caso de Nemat Safavi a la cabeza, un joven que fue detenido con 16 años acusado de sodomía y del que han hecho bandera los colectivos de medio mundo. Alí estaría en la lista. Escapó por poco.

«Fui con Firouz, mi pareja, a una fiesta de cumpleaños. Todos éramos homosexuales. Nos juntábamos en secreto. Porque era la única manera de sentirse libre y normal. Entonces la policía tiró la puerta abajo y nos llevó a todos. Nos encerró y nos golpeaban. Nos insultaban. A mí estuvieron torturándome durante una semana. Mientras nos daban, gritaban: 'Maricones, al día siguiente os vamos a matar'».

Firouz acabó depositando la práctica totalidad de sus tierras como aval y pagó la fianza de ambos. Pero ya sabían lo que les esperaba. Llegados a la encrucijada, los novios tomaron caminos opuestos. Alí dejó atrás su trabajo en una oficina de empleo y pagó a las mafias para el primer destino posible. El lugar fue España.

En diciembre de 2008, el iraní pisaba el aeropuerto de Barajas pidiendo asilo y al cabo de un mes fue acogido en el albergue de la Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (Cear) en Málaga. De todo lo malagueño se ha imbuido Alí en este año sin esposas. En Málaga sueña y en Málaga espera.

«Ha hecho muchos amigos y es muy querido», cuenta David Cedeño, presidente provincial de Colegas, colectivo dedicado a la igualdad de los homosexuales. «Él siempre dice que estuvo preso una semana, pero que su cárcel ha durado 36 años».

Belén Amaro, letrada de Cear, lo contó así cuando presentó la solicitud de asilo de Alí. «Lo que hace su caso excepcional y más grave que el de los demás refugiados es que él no eligió la causa de su persecución. Los demás pueden elegir hacer una cosa o no, ser cristianos, o adúlteras, o ser manifestantes contra un régimen. Pero Alí no eligió ser homosexual».

No será mucho, pero Colegas de Málaga le ha puesto calvo de oro a estas Navidades con Alí y sin Alá. Todo lo que dé el sorteo de la cesta será para él, para que eche a volar ahora que el 27 de diciembre ha de dejar el nido. En Málaga sueña y en Málaga espera. Cómo estará Firouz.

Italian gay men to seek asylum in Spain

Source: typicallyspanish.com

Gay men from Italy who are members of the association Arcigay say they are to ask for asylum in Spain because of the ‘increasing homophobia’ in their country.

They are to present their request for asylum before the Spanish Consulate in Milan, and have called a national demonstration in Rome on October 10.

‘We want to live in a civilized country’ they say, highlighting recent attacks on people attending gay venues in Italy.

Spain Marches Into The Future Again

Image by mojitopt via Flickr

Source: queety

Spain, quickly becoming one of the most progressive countries in Europe, has proposed a new law that would grant political asylum to people fleeing from persecution in their home countries based on sexual orientation. If passed, Spain would join those other queer-marrying countries like Holland and Canada, who also grant asylum to persecuted gays.

So does the U.S. offer such asylum? Um, not so much.

Sexuality is not specifically regarded as grounds for asylum in the United States. Last month a gay Zimbabwe man who says he faces persecution at home has had his appeal for asylum rejected by a federal appeals court.

William J. Kimumwe told the court that he fled Zimbabwe and eventually made it to the United States in 2002, settling in Minneapolis where his initial bid for asylum was denied.

In federal court he related to the three judges the situation in Zimbabwe under strongman Robert Mugabe where gays are routinely arrested and often held for months without trial.

Kudos to Spain, the third country to allow full gay marriage. Let's hope our country gets back in the business of being a world leader in progress and begins granting political asylum to gays that happen to be born in less fortunate places. Are you listening Dubya?