LibDems support LGBT asylum overall

Simon Hughes MP speaking during the debate

The LiberalDemocrats have passed a motion at their annual conference calling on the government to "halt the deportation of people to countries where their sexual orientation or gender identification may mean that they are threatened with the risk of imprisonment, torture, or even execution."

Full text of the resolution

A series of speeches highlighted both the general principle and shocking individual cases, with speakers ranging from ordinary members to Party President Simon Hughes MP and Lord Roger Roberts.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said after the vote, "It is totally unacceptable for Britain to be deporting people to countries where they will face persecution, torture or death merely because of their sexual orientation. This country has a proud tradition of providing sanctuary to those fleeing tyranny and oppression.

"It is about time that practice was extended to gay and lesbian people escaping deeply unpleasant homophobic regimes."

Asylum campaigners to protest in Cardiff

Article from Pinknews.co.uk sept.5:

A campaign group who want to overturn the decision to deport a gay asylum seeker will protest in Cardiff tomorrow, the day of the city's Pride event.

The 'Keep Babi Safe in Cardiff' anti-deportation campaign will be holding a demonstration by the Aneurin Bevan statue on Queen Street, Cardiff.

Babakhan Badalov (Babi) from Azerbaijan arrived in the UK in 2006 claiming he was repressed and persecuted in his home country.

Azerbaijan legalised homosexuality in 2000.

However, the Muslim country is still a very conservative society and homosexuality remains an extremely taboo subject.

The 49 year-old internationally-renowned poet and artist said his work got him into trouble with the law.

He was often critical of the government and members of the regime.

He claims his sexual orientation also caused him both physical and mental grief and he endured years of bullying.

Babi's family's denial of his sexual orientation even led to one of his brothers threatening to kill him as he had shamed the family.

After fleeing to the UK, Babi was detained in four different detention centres for thirty-two days before being moved to Cardiff.

As a result of the beatings and bullying, Babi has only eight teeth remaining and faces a number of mental health problems such as anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal tendencies and insomnia.

"Like most gay people who have claimed asylum because the persecution they have experienced Babi's claim for asylum has not been successful," said a campaign spokesperson.

"Sexuality, for the Home Office, is for the most part dismissed as adequate grounds for being granted asylum.

"The Home Office policy line with respect to gay asylum applicants is that because gay people are not necessarily visible they can therefore live 'normal' lives by being 'discreet' about their sexualities."

Tony Williams from No Borders South Wales, who are helping coordinate Babi's campaign, said:

"The way that the government treats people who have claimed asylum because of their sexuality is appalling. Even those that it believes have suffered terrible homophobic persecution are regularly forcibly deported back to the countries they have fled.

“They are told that they should go and live in another part of the country and to keep their sexuality a secret. This risky strategy forces people to live a life in the shadows, hiding their sexuality and praying that no one finds them out."

Babi, whose work will be exhibited in Cardiff's TactileBOSCH studio on 27 September, said he is deeply upset that he has been refused asylum.

"I am very sad," he said.

"I feel very stressed. Every time I have to sign I am scared that I will be taken and put in a detention centre again. I am scared what might happen me if I go back. I can not go back. I will die if I go back."

The UK asylum system has been under increasing pressure and is seen as falling below the standards of a civilised nation.

A recent 12-member Independent Asylum Commission said that it failed to give sanctuary to people who genuinely need it.

Lord Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons, told the BBC:

"We are concerned at the level of the treatment of children, the treatment of women, the treatment of those with health needs, particularly mental health needs, torture survivors."

The Home Secretary came under fire earlier this year when she stated In a letter to Lib Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno:

"With … regard to Iran, current case law handed down by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal concludes that the evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation."

Jacqui Smith branded "offensive" by gay immigration group

From PinkNews

A group that works with lesbian and gay asylum seekers has said that the Home Secretary's assertion that gay men and lesbians who are "discreet" are not in danger in Iran is ill-informed and offensive.

The UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKGLIG) was founded in 1993 to assist same-sex, bi-national couples win the right for foreign partners to remain in the United Kingdom.

For the last four years focused on the problems faced by lesbian and gay asylum seekers.

In the past year it has dealt with more than 200 people.

Executive director Sebastian Rocca told PinkNews.co.uk that he believes there are many more, some of whom are afraid to declare their sexuality to Home Office officials in case being open about their sexuality could put them in danger if they are returned.

The bulk of the people UKGLIG helps are from Iran, Iraq, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Jamaica and Pakistan.

Mr Rocca said he was personally offended by Jacqui Smith's comments.

In a letter to Lib Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno, published in The Independent yesterday, she said:

"With … regard to Iran, current case law handed down by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal concludes that the evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation."

Mr Rocca said her comments showed an ignorance of what it means to be gay.

"Being gay is not just about sex, it is about being able to express who you are, walking the way you like, not having to change the tone of your voice, being able to talk about the things that interest you, be that interior design and not football.

"Asking gay men to go back to Iran and be "discreet," that is persecution in itself."

He said that the Home Secretary had not thought about what discreet means in this context.

"If you are a gay man and you go back, you have to get married to a woman - it's not acceptable to not be married.

"If you do not, that is one of the reasons why they can decide not to employ you or rent you an apartment - they will ask questions.

"I had a case where they keep refusing to get married and their family sent them to a psychiatrist."

Mr Rocha added that being "discreet" is effectively someone to be alone for the rest of their life.
"We have an obligation to protect lesbians and gay men," he added.

UKGLIG is helping 35 people from Iran at present.

Mr Rocha said that Home Office guidance had improved in recent years.

"They do consult with us quite often and they have improved the bulletin about Iran after consultation.

"The people we deal with are the people who prepare the country of origin reports that judges read when they make a decision about asylum.

"They're key to us."

Mr Rocha said it was difficult to understand how this concept of "discretion" would be factored into asylum appeals.

Jacqui Smith's statement: media release by LGBT Greens

Home Secretary ‘misled’ to claim safety of LGBT people returned to Iran
Urgent review of Home Office approaches to LGBT asylum needed

23.6.8
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, does not consider Iranian LGBT asylum seekers to have fears of persecution if they are returned. According to Smith who has had correspondence with Lord Roberts of Llandudno published in a letter in today’s Independent, ‘evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation.’

In condemning the Home Secretary’s response, Phelim Mac Cafferty, media spokesperson for LGBT Greens stated:

“Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, is playing a dangerous game with the lives of Iranian LGBT refugees: effectively she’s trying to rubbish the argument that LGBT people are being persecuted for their sexuality in Iran. Her claim that as long as people are ‘discreet’ a regime notorious for its treatment of LGBT people will somehow stop persecuting them is misled at best and homicidal at worst.

“Instead of this macho posturing from the Home Office on keeping asylum figures down, we desperately need a Home Secretary prepared to look the Iranian regime in the eyes and stand up for what’s right for LGBT people.

“Iranian LGBT refugees have fled from persecution and torture and we now need an urgent review of the services provided for all LGBT refugees. We need-

1. Compulsory training for all asylum staff on sexual-orientation and trans-awareness.
2. Explicit instructions to all immigration and asylum staff, and asylum judges, that homophobic and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for granting asylum.
3. Clearer and up-to-date guidance from the Home Office for asylum judges to reflect
the accurate scale of LGBT persecution throughout the world
4. Legal-aid funding for asylum claims need to be substantially increased."

‘Discrete’ Gays Safe in Iran: Really Ms. Smith?

UKGayNews op-ed

It was enough to make anyone with a remote interest in gay men and women from Iran seeking refuge in the United Kingdom – and their problems with the Home Office – choke on their morning corn flakes.

“Iran Is Safe for ‘Discrete’ Gays, Says Jacqui Smith”, the headline in this morning’s The Independent informed us.

Robert Verkaik, the Indy’s legal editor who was the first to highlight in the ‘mainstream’ Press the plight of the then teenage gay Iranian Mehedi Kazemi, reported that Ms. Smith, the Home Secretary, had written to a Liberal Democrat Peer that gay and lesbian refuge-seekers can be safely deported to Iran as long as they live their lives “discreetly”.

Not only that, but she also said that there was no “real risk” of gay men and lesbians being discovered by the Iranian authorities or “adverse action” being taken against those who were “discreet” about their behaviour, Mr. Verkaik reported.

Frankly, we are wondering what planet Jacqui Smith is on.

No one expects Ms. Smith to know everything concerning her department. She has “advisors”, in the form of senior civil servants.

And as the TV series Yes Minister poignantly portrayed in every episode, these mandarins have a habit of getting their own way.

Perhaps the writer of the letter to the Peer was a Daily Mail-reading official who had never come across any of the background situation reports on Iran by likes of Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.

Scott Long, the director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, wrote in The Guardian on March 31 this year:

“The UK should recognise – as the Netherlands has done – that with a law prescribing death or torture for gay Iranians, they need not demonstrate the details of past persecution. Lift the burden of proof from Mehdi and his gay compatriots. End the threat of deportation.”

He also said that current policy of the Home Office “is a disastrous evasion of the UK's responsibilities under international law”.

To coincide with International Day Against Homophobia on May 17, Human Rights Watch added the Home Office to its annual “Hall of Shame” for its policy on the deportation of gay men and women back to less than sympathetic countries, often flouting international law.

The problem with the reasoning of the Home Office is that in all but one of the half dozen cases of gay Iranian men and women seeking refuge that UK Gay News knows about, arrived here having fled because the police were actually on their trail – and not for fearing that the police might one day be interested in their sexuality.

The one exception was Mr. Kazemi who was already in the UK completing his education on a student visa when he learned that his partner had been executed – but not before he had named Medhi.

Jacqui Smith, as the LGBT Greens suggest, is “playing a dangerous game” with the lives of gay Iranian refugees.

“Effectively she’s trying to rubbish the argument that LGBT people are being persecuted for their sexuality in Iran,” LGBT Greens spokesperson Phelim Mac Cafferty said this afternoon.

“Her claim that as long as people are ‘discreet’ a regime notorious for its treatment of LGBT people will somehow stop persecuting them is misled at best – and homicidal at worst.”

Campaigning group GayAsylumUK described the remarks by the Home Secretary in the letter to Lord Roberts as being “outrageous, shameful, inhumane and anti-gay”.

The astounding thing is that, almost four years ago Ms. Smith was in charge of steering the Civil Partnerships Bill through the House of Commons back in 2004 when she was the Women and Equality Minister.

UK Gay News would hazard a guess that Her Majesty’s Government is ‘running scared’ of the xenophobic and largely homophobic tabloid press when it comes to a fair policy on gay refuge seekers.

Who runs this country? The democratically elected Government, or the self-appointed tabloids that huff and puff – and are expert at creating mass hysteria?

Tory MP attacks Home Secretary over Iran comments

Source: PinkNews

The Chairman of the Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission has added his voice to the chorus of criticism of Jacqui Smith after she claimed that gay people are in no danger in Iran as long as they are "discreet."

Stephen Crabb MP said that the Iranian regime's record of brutality towards sexual minorities is "dreadful" and the Islamic nation regularly uses torture and the death penalty.

Ms Smith, the Home Secretary, said in a letter to Lib Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno that in Iran "the evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of or adverse action against gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation."

Mr Crabb said that most "fair-minded people" will be appalled by her comments.

"The Iranian regime has a dreadful track-record when it comes to the treatment of homosexuals and other minority groups and is more than willing to use torture and the death sentence to punish offenders.

"Asking minorities to live their lives discreetly is to give in to the tyrants and bullies who sustain their positions through fear and coerced conformity.

"It demonstrates both an unelevated view of the importance of human rights and cowardice in championing our own system of values."

The Green party has also criticised her and attacked the "macho posturing" of the Home Office.
Phelim Mac Cafferty, media spokesperson for LGBT Greens said:

"Jacqui Smith is playing a dangerous game with the lives of Iranian LGBT refugees: effectively she's trying to rubbish the argument that LGBT people are being persecuted for their sexuality in Iran.

"Her claim that as long as people are "discreet" a regime notorious for its treatment of LGBT people will somehow stop persecuting them is misled at best and homicidal at worst.

"Instead of this macho posturing from the Home Office on keeping asylum figures down, we desperately need a Home Secretary prepared to look the Iranian regime in the eyes and stand up for what’s right for LGBT people."

Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill had praised the Home Secretary earlier this year when she reviewed the case of Mehdi Kazemi.

The 20-year-old was due to be returned to Iran, where he claimed his boyfriend had been executed and police had a warrant for his arrest on homosexuality charges. He was given leave to remain in the UK.

Today he told The Independent:

"You only have to listen to people who were terrorised by the Metropolitan Police in the 1950s and 1960s to know that telling gay people to live discreetly is quixotic."

Respected human rights groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have documented scores of cases of Iranian gay men and lesbians being targeted, and sometimes executed, for homosexual behaviour.

Campaign group gayasylumuk called the Home Secretary's comments outrageous, shameful, inhumane and anti-gay and called for protesters to target the Prime Minister and the Labour party.

"We hope that gay and lesbian Labour voters in particular will consider changing their vote if the policy isn't changed before the next election," said spokesperson Paul Canning.

"This is one way to get the message through on their hypocrisy regarding lesbian and gay rights issues — when embassies in other countries are flying the rainbow flag they aren't doing this in Tehran, Kingston or Kampala."

In 2005 Iran sparked international outrage when it publicly executed two teenage boys.
Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were hanged because according to the regime they were rapists, however gay campaigners insist the boys were killed under Sharia law for the crime of homosexuality.

At first it was claimed by Iranian officials that they were aged 18 and 19.

The best evidence is that both youths were aged 17 when they were executed and therefore minors, aged 15 or 16, at the time of their alleged crimes.

In March Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury drew to the government's attention the case of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, a 20-year-old who was executed in December 2007 for a homosexual offence allegedly committed when he was 13.

Last year information was released by the Foreign and Commonwealth office regarding the execution of gays in Iran.

The documentation took the form of correspondence sent between embassies throughout the EU and dates back as far as May 2005.

It refers specifically to the case of Mahmoud and Ayaz.

It also shows that although the two boys may not have been executed solely because of the homosexual aspect for the crime, the punishment was carried out "before all legal means to avoid the execution had been exhausted."

A further conversation between a Parliamentary Union and the Iranian Majles (legislative body) in May 2007 showed that "according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted. He [an Iranian representative] said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed."

According to the transcript he initially said "torture" but changed the wording to "execution."

He also argued that "homosexuality is against human nature" and that "humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce."

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

• Full transcripts of the FCO documents

gayasylumuk condemns "inhumane, anti-gay" Labour government

MEDIA RELEASE

23rd June, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

gayasylumuk condemns "inhumane, anti-gay" Labour government

The campaigning group gayaylumuk today called the comments of British Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith about retuning gays and lesbians to Iran "outrageous, shameful, inhumane and anti-gay".

In a letter to the LibDem MP Lord Roberts, Smith echoed government policy by claiming that it was safe to return people if they were "discreet".

Spokesperson, Paul Canning, said "we are calling for protest to be directed at Gordon Brown over the issue. Sign the petition."

"We hope that gay and lesbian Labour voters in particular will consider changing their vote if the policy isn't changed before the next election. This is one way to get the message through on their hypocrisy regarding lesbian and gay rights issues — when embassies in other countries are flying the rainbow flag they aren't doing this in Tehran, Kingston or Kampala."

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the respected international authority often quoted by the government, has documented the persecution and torture of gays and lesbians in Iran, where sex can attract the death penalty.

In March they issued an alert over the raiding of a private party in Ishfahan. In May the Home Office was added to their 'Hall of Shame'.

Scott Long of HRW said: "Torturing and killing gays is legal in Iran: you don't need to view the bodies to prove it. International law bars Britain from returning people to the risk of torture. Britain must give gay Iranians asylum."

"Human Rights Watch has shown how Britain tries to redefine its obligations on torture, so it can send people back to states where they face grave risk. Usually it happens in the context of counterterrorism. But with gay Iranians, too, the government aims to change the rules, denying that legal torture is "persecution"."

gayasylumuk believes that the number of such asylum seekers in the UK is small, maybe 30. Such small numbers is also the case in other countries.

"The Dutch experience shows that a proven, tested model exists of how to operate a humane asylum policy for gays and lesbians - and they haven't had a 'flood'", said Canning.

"Similar policy and practice exists in the United States, Canada and Sweden - why is the UK alone in being inhumane and disregarding international law?"

gayasylumuk countered the government's position, as restated in the Medhi Kazemi case in the House of Lords by the Home Office Minister, Lord West.

"We are extremely cautious about the way in which we treat these cases"
They have shown no evidence of caution. For a number of years they have consistently refused asylum to gays and lesbians and transgender people who would suffer persecution if returned, because that is their policy. Some of these people have committed suicide rather than be returned. There is a mass of evidence that Iran and other countries like Jamaica and Uganda are a 'deathzone'.

"We give detailed consideration to these cases"
This is not the experience of asylum seekers, and this is well documented. They do not consider the stated opinion of their own colleagues in the Foreign Office and never have. They misrepresent evidence of torture and systematic harassment by Human Rights Watch and other NGOs.

"They go through a rigorous appeals and court process"
As Smith has just reiterated, there is a Home Office policy that gays and lesbians can be returned if they are 'discreet'. Further, there is a history of the Home Office accepting bland assurances from the Iranian and other governments. Further, there is a lot of evidence of homophobic attitudes within the Appeals Court process.

"Obviously we have to follow and respect the integrity of that process"
Not if it is biased. Not if the outcome is guaranteed because of their (unstated) policy. There is no integrity to this process for gays and lesbians.

The group is calling on all British people outraged by government policy to sign the petition, established by Durham Methodist minister Walter Attwood, which 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'. to Gordon Brown (at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/).

This petition 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.

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

• Further information on asylum seekers the Iranian lesbian threatened with deportation to torture and possible death by stoning, Pegah Emambakhsh, can be found on 'LGBT asylum news (formally Save Mehdi Kazemi)', the campaign's website
  http://www.medhikazemi.com
  
  
• Human Rights Watch: Iran: Private Homes Raided for 'Immorality'
  Authorities Escalate Arbitrary Arrests, Harassment
  http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/28/iran18385.htm
  
  
• Human Rights Watch adds Home Office to 'Hall of Shame'
  http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2008/05/human-rights-watch-adds-home-office-to.html
  
  
• Further information on Rev. Walter Attwood
  http://www.durhamdeernessmethodist.org.uk/ministers.shtml
  

A button promoting the petition to Gordon Brown, for use on websites and blogs, can also be found on our website.

~~~~~~

Independent: Iran is safe for 'discreet' gays, says Jacqui Smith

Mehdi reaction in the House of Lords

22nd May in the House of Lords

Nb: our emphasis

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: My Lords, I want to express my appreciation of the Home Secretary’s action in giving asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, the young man who was to be forcefully removed to Iran. I am told that that happened yesterday. In view of what is going on in Iran and the possible treatment of those who are repatriated or forcibly removed from here, could there not be a total moratorium on the removal of failed asylum seekers to Iran?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, let me return the compliment to the noble Lord and to those in this House who have continuously raised the issue of Mehdi Kazemi. That was instrumental in the Home Secretary’s reconsideration of the case and the decision to grant him a five-year initial stay here in the UK. Equally, however, noble Lords will recognise that we must preserve the right to deal with these matters on a case-by case-basis. That is at the heart of our approach to asylum.

Peers support for Mehdi

Writing in The Independent the Peer who has led the campaign in the House of Lords in support of Mehdi, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, writes:

This is a matter of avoiding a breach of international law but, more than that, it is a matter of not sending a 19-year-old man, who has hurt nobody, to his death.

There is only one ethical course of action for the British government to take. A moratorium on removals to Iran for all those who fear execution. Indeed, the Home Office has gone some way to acknowledge such a principle. In its own guidance, its says that where anyone demonstrates their homosexual acts have brought them to the attention of the authorities so they face persecution they should be granted refugee status.

The Government will be aware that, since the ayatollahs came to reign in Iran, humanitarian organisations tell us that 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed in that country. What representations have Her Majesty's Government made and what representations do they continue to make about that policy? Can ministers assure us on behalf of the Government that no one, gay or otherwise, will be deported to any country where they will be persecuted, tortured or executed?

In a letter to the Independent, 17 members of the House of Lords, including the film director David Puttnam, the former Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd, and the human rights barrister Helena Kennedy QC, say the case of Mr Kazemi demonstrates a change of policy is now the "only moral course" for the Government to follow.

We welcome the decision of the Home Secretary to look again at Mr Kazemi's case and to reconsider the original decision to refuse him asylum in the United Kingdom. The Home Office have acted appropriately in this, as indeed they have acted within the law throughout this case.

However, this is not simply a legal matter but a moral one too... when we are making decisions of life or death, we must be aware of the human consequences of the cold letter of the law.

The Independent quotes a response to an earlier letter by 70 peers from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith:

I can assure you the Government is committed to providing protection for those individuals found to be genuinely in need in accordance with our commitments under international law.

The Home Office Country of Origin Information Service closely monitors the human rights situation in all the countries that generate asylum-seekers to the UK, including Iran. It provides accurate, objective, sourced and up-to-date information.

The published Country Reports are updated on a rolling basis and are compiled from a wide range of external information sources including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees World Health Organisation, human rights organisations, news media and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The current Home Office Iran Country Report was published on 31 January 2008 and includes a specific section on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Persons.

A report into Britain's immigration system published yesterday has described the treatment of refugees as "shameful."

Published by the Independent Asylum Commission, led by a former senior judge, it said the immigration policy denied sanctuary to some refugees who were in genuine need of help.

Home Office statements in the Lords

6,242 signatures on the iPetition
2,012 signatures on the Downing Street petition

From the Lords today:

Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat)
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What their policy is on removals to Iran.
Lord West of Spithead (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Security and Counter-terrorism), Home Office):
My Lords, we recognise that there are individuals from Iran who are able to demonstrate a need for international protection, and it is only right that we provide protection to those in genuine fear of persecution. However, enforcing the return of those who have no right to remain here is a key part of upholding a robust and fair asylum system.
Lord Roberts:
My Lords, I am not sure whether or not I thank the Minister for that reply. I thank the 80 Members of this House who last week joined me in the appeal on behalf of the young Iranian whose deportation has been delayed. I thank the Home Secretary for her response.
When people are forcibly removed from the UK, what mechanism is there to monitor the treatment they receive in their homeland? How do we keep an eye on that? And is it not time, in spite of the Minister's Answer, that we joined other countries in having a moratorium on forced return not only to Iran but to other places where folk are persecuted, tortured and possibly even executed?
Lord West:
My Lords, it is worth saying that we are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran. However, we have said in our most recent operational guidance note that if a claimant can demonstrate that their homosexual acts have brought them to the attention of the authorities to the extent that they will face a real risk of punishment that will be harsh and will amount to persecution, they should be granted refugee status as a member of a particular social group. In addition, gay rights activists who have come to the attention of the authorities face a real risk of persecution, and they should be granted asylum as well.
Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench):
My Lords, is the Minister aware that in the past 30 years some 120,000 members of the Iranian Resistance have been executed, including women and children? Is he further aware that in this week's elections more than 1,000 reformist candidates were prevented from standing, their newspapers were closed down and they were refused permission to hold public meetings? Given those circumstances and the need to encourage democracy and change in Iran, how can the Government justify the continued decision to proscribe the Iranian Resistance, a decision that our own judges have described as, to use their word, perverse?
Lord West:
My Lords, that is a bit beyond the Question being asked. On the issue of the returning of gay people to Iran, we have concerns about the treatment of gays in that country. The FCO and NGOs monitor what is happening in Iran, and we are not aware of any individual having been executed solely on the grounds of homosexuality.
Lord Corbett of Castle Vale:
My Lords, can the Minister confirm that there have been 57 critical reports in the United Nations about the repressive nature of the mullahs' regime in Iran? The abuses of human rights include the amputation of limbs without anaesthetics, the gouging out of eyes, the hanging of convicted minors from the ends of cranes in public and the death penalty for those convicted of homosexuality. Will the Minister take the opportunity to speak to any one of 200 Members of your Lordships' House who share my views on this vile regime if he needs any other evidence that it is unsafe to return asylum seekers to that regime?
Lord West:
My Lords, I return to what I said: we are not aware of any individual having been executed solely on the grounds of homosexuality in Iran, and we are not aware of any that we have returned having been executed.
Baroness Warsi (Conservative):
My Lords, is the Minister aware of discrepancies between in-country information provided in briefs by the Foreign Office and reports produced by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch about the situation in Iran? If the Minister accepts that there are such discrepancies and that our information is not entirely correct, how can our decisions possibly be correct?
Lord West:
My Lords, I am going by the information provided, I admit, by the Foreign Office in conjunction with some NGOs. We have no evidence of anyone we have sent back being executed, and we would never send someone back who we felt was in danger of being executed. That is our position with any country in the world; we just do not do that.
Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat) :
My Lords, further to the point raised by the noble Baroness, is the Minister aware that the Country of Origin Information Service report on Iran, published by the Home Office, is deficient in many respects? Does he know that it omits quite a few public domain references to the persecution of gays in Iran, including in particular the execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, a teenager who was executed for a homosexual offence allegedly committed when he was 13? Will the noble Lord make sure that the Home Office Country of Origin Information Service updates its report and that, in particular, it looks at material in the public domain such as that which one can find on Wikipedia?
Lord West:
My Lords, I can assure the noble Lord that we will look at that. It is worth repeating that we have concerns about the treatment of gays within Iran. However, in the one case that we looked into, because it was shown on television, we found that two young males were hanged because they were found guilty of raping a 13 year-old boy. They were hanged for the offence of rape. Nevertheless, we certainly will look at the point that the noble Lord raises, as we need to do so.
Lord Wedderburn of Charlton (Crossbench) :
My Lords, can my noble friend explain how the Foreign Office has performed the miracle of having Nelson still alive in its offices with his telescope stuck to his blind eye?
Lord West:
My Lords, as a naval person I should be able to answer that. All I can say is that I will talk to my colleagues in the Foreign Office to try to ensure that we are getting the best flavour of exactly what is happening in Iran.

Sounds fairly clear that the Home Office won't give an inch until absolutely forced to - by the rest of us and when told to by the PM because the embarrassment via the media is just too great. And restating the 'rape' claims is beyond belief. Shameless. Lord Spit and Gorgeous George Galloway have much in common.

Video of the Lords session

blog post about Lord West's staemenst

News update

Last night's BBC News 24 Report (also on News At Ten):

Following the ABC Nightly News Report, the story has now hit the right-wing blogosphere in the United States. Atlas Shrugs covers it this morning, using it as an anti-European left example:

This is where the head spins ... The left in America and Europe can't stop sucking Ahmadi-nijad, his rod and his staff.

And MTV, which will flow on to its affiliates around the world. Apart from the international gay media, it is also been reported in the past couple of days across America, in Fiji, India, France, South Africa, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany Australia, New Zealand — and Iran.

An American gay newspaper, Out In Jersey, has sent the following to Jacqui Smith:

It gives me nothing but pain to inform you that, in the event Mehdi is sent back to Iran, this publication will have no alternative but to call, loudly and frequently, for a boycott of travel to the United Kingdom. I cannot see how, in conscience, we can do otherwise.

The Independent reports that:

63 peers have signed a letter to the Home Secretary urging the Government to halt the deportation.

Among those pressing the Government to help Mr Kazemi are Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice; Betty Boothroyd, the former speaker of the House of Commons; and Shirley Williams, Julia Neuberger, Paddy Ashdown, David Steel, Lord Lester QC and the Bishop of Liverpool, as well as a number of senior Labour peers.

It is understood that some government ministers privately support the peers' intervention, but for constitutional reasons are unable to put their names to the document.

The author of the letter, the LibDem peer and Methodist Minister, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, is seeking an urgent meeting with a Home Office minister.

Baroness Scott comments that:

Roger Roberts, was collecting signatures in the Lords yesterday petitioning for Mehdi to stay in the UK. Whilst I was only too pleased to add my name, I was disappointed, to say the least, not a single Conservative could be persuaded to do so.

Madhi's Uncle, Saeed, is also quoted by the Indie:

After losing his case he is so afraid now of what might happen to him. He is living a nightmare which no young man should ever have to experience. I have been told that there is an arrest warrant in his name issued by the Iranian government police. If he goes back, his life will be in danger. I urge Ms Smith to please reconsider his case.

As is Simon Hughes MP:

As Mehdi's British MP, and someone who has been supporting him and his family since December 2006, I am prepared for Mehdi's return to the UK. As soon as Mehdi is back in the UK, I will meet him and his family and make official representations through the proper channels, with the help of the best legal support. The Home Office has assured me that they will then reconsider Mehdi's case.

Independent Opinion piece by Phillip Henshaw: There is no logic to our treatment of Mehdi Kazemi

But we're not talking about thousands of potential asylum seekers, or a situation that hasn't taken shape yet. We are talking, unfortunately, about one tragic and terrifying case, and about one 19-year-old who we are seriously proposing to send back to Iran, where he may very well be executed.

Is it entirely impossible that Mr Kazemi's case has been dealt with by officials who regard a 19-year-old homosexual, and the state of homosexuality itself, with frank distaste? It seems more than likely.

Mr Kazemi is not, by now, a case or a precedent. He is a human being in a situation that we can thank God few of us will ever face.

Dutch Radio reports that:

The European Parliament is demanding that an Iranian homosexual, currently detained in an immigration centre in the Netherlands, receive protection.

European MPs are worried that Mr Kazemi will receive the death penalty if he is sent back to Iran. They say that he must not become the victim of European bureaucracy.

The Daily Mail covers Madhi today. It quotes the Dutch Democrat MP Boris van der Ham Kamervragen, who has taken up Kazemi's case. He has tabled questions in Parliament asking the junior minister for immigration, Nebahat Albayrak, to lobby British authorities on Kazemi's behalf.

There should be some political leadership. I hope in Britain they will do it and otherwise we should take the boy.

The Mail says that Madhi is not expected to be deported before Albayrak has answered Van der Ham's questions.

This is a sample comment on the story by a Daily Mail reader:

Would either country care to have the label 'murderer' hanging over their head?

George Galloway has defended the Iranian Government and made despicable remarks concerning Madhi. Speaking on the Channel 5 TV talk show The Wright Stuff this morning

TRANSCRIPT
GG: The Independent has a story about Peers calling upon the Home Secretary to halt the deportation of a gay Iranian. In part this is being used as part of the on-going propaganda against Iran. All the papers seem to imply that you get executed in Iran for being gay. That's not true.
MW: His boyfriend was hung though, wasn't he?
GG: Yes, but nor being gay. For uh, committing sex crimes, uh, against young men.
MW: Right...
GG: I mean, I'm against execution for any reason in any place, but it is important to avoid that propaganda.
MW: So you're saying that his guy they want to deport should be deported because there is no risk of his sexuality.. or he shouldn't be deported because there is at risk?
GG: He should not be deported not least because after all this Iranian propaganda he will be accused of being the source, or one of the sources. It would be ridiculous to deport him, and I don't think he will be deported now.

Video. Galloway is contactable here.