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Tuesday, August 12
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Source: Miami Herald , Radio Jamaica , Jamaica Observer Maimi -- In an extremely rare move, a Jamaican lesbian living in Florida has avoided deportation -- for now -- after an immigration judge allowed the 29-year-old to stay in the United States because her sexual orientation could cause her to be tortured in her home country, Miami Herald reports. ''The general atmosphere in Jamaica is a feeling of no tolerance towards homosexuals in general, and as such, ... the respondent's life is definitely at risk,'' Immigration Judge Irma Lopez-Defillo said, according to court documents...
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Monday, August 04
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Source: Canadian Press , The Coast OTTAWA -- Canadian courts and immigration panels consider many refugee claims each week from gay, lesbian, or transgender applicants who say they face jail or worse if returned to their home countries. But LGBT refugee claimants often struggle to shed old-world views of their sexuality when making a claim, Canadian Press news service reports. Some immigration advocates now advise claimants to turn to new-age technology to make their case. Facebook, the popular online social network, is being used as a tool by some claimants to help prove their sexual orientation...
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Tuesday, July 29
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Source: Winnipeg Sun Winnipeg, Manitoba -- A federal judge agreed recently with an immigration board that a Nigerian native applying for refugee status in Canada cooked up a story that he's gay in order to stay in Canada. The Winnipeg man claims he will be persecuted for homosexuality if he returns to his native Nigeria, but may be ordered to leave Canada after the July 10 decision by a federal court judge, Winnipeg Sun reports. "I'm very, very in danger if I return to my country," the 38-year-old man said yesterday, speaking to the Winnipeg Sun on condition of anonymity. "I...
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Wednesday, May 21
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Source: CNN , The Independent , BBC News , UK Gay News LONDON -- After a year-long battle, Britain has granted asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian student who faced deportation from the United Kingdom and feared execution in Iran for being homosexual, officials confirmed Tuesday. "We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed, and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case," Britain's Home Office said in a written statement quoting an unnamed UK Border Agency spokesman. Protests prompted...
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Monday, May 12
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Source: Scotland on Sunday Glasgow, Scotland -- A gay asylum seeker who fears torture and death if he is deported to Syria, where homosexuality is illegal, is waiting to hear if this week's appeal for leave to stay in Scotland will be granted. At a tribunal that met to consider his case Tuesday, Yakob gave testimony that one supporter called deeply emotional. "Jojo gave evidence and he was very upset," said Rob McDowall of the advocacy group Equal Rights Now. "It was really emotional hearing him tell his story. The Home Office really pushed him and tried to con him into changing...
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Tuesday, April 15
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Source: Toronto Star , CBC News Joaquin Ramirez is afraid to be sent home to his native El Salvador and face the three police officers that he claims raped him in a sugarcane field two years ago. He said he was picked on by three drunken officers at an Aguilares restaurant on Jan. 13, 2006, and driven to a plantation field where the alleged assault took place. The 39-year-old HIV-positive man said the accused perpetrators have visited his family and threatened to kill him because he infected them with the virus that causes AIDS. Related in Qnews : Experts say Canada needs better rules for gay refugees...
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Wednesday, March 26
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Source: Guardian's 'Comment is free' by Peter Tatchell [Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner, and a member of the queer rights group OutRage! and the left wing of the Green party. He is the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East.] George Galloway, the Leftwing member of Parliament from the Respect party, has been accused of making allegations that border on paedophile smears and play to homophobic prejudice. He claims that the boyfriend of gay Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for "committing sex crimes against young men". The insinuation...
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Tuesday, March 25
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Source: YNet News , Israel Today , Independent Online A 33 year-old gay Palestinian man from Jenin in the West Bank has recently been granted a temporary residency permit in Israel by the army -- the IDF, in order to allow him to reunite with his Israeli partner who lives in Tel Aviv. The permit was issued by Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav. Several years ago, the Palestinian applied years ago for an Israeli visa in order to live with his Israeli lover of eight years in Tel Aviv. "We have been asking to be reunited for five years," said...
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Monday, March 24
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Source: UK Gay News , UK Gay News , Guardian The British Government is currently failing gay refugees, Peter Tatchell told a rally in Whitehall, outside the Prime Minister’s official residence 10 Downing Street. Over 120 protesters braved hail and rain on Saturday to demand that gay Iranian asylum seeker, Mehdi Kazemi, be granted refuge in the UK. They also urged asylum for the Iranian lesbian refugee, Pegah Emambakhsh, and an estimated 12 other gay Iranians who are at risk of deportation back to Tehran and for Jojo Yakob -- a Syrian gay man -- who is also under threat of deportation. In a letter...
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Saturday, March 22
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Source: Scotland on Sunday , GayNZ POLITICAL pressure is mounting on the UK Government to reverse its decision to deport a gay Syrian teenager from Scotland to his homeland, where he faces almost certain imprisonment and torture. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday reported last week that 19-year-old Jojo Jako Yakob was being held in Polmont Young Offenders' Institution awaiting deportation, despite evidence he had been tortured almost to death in Syria, where homosexuality is illegal. Jojo fled his homeland two years ago after surviving a harrowing ordeal at the hands of Syrian police and prison...
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Sunday, March 16
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Source: Times Colonist The Canadian Refugee Board needs to establish clearer guidelines on sexual orientation to help adjudicators avoid stereotyping gay and lesbian refugees who have little proof they are gay, say legal experts. Related in Qnews : Social networks like Facebook can help LGBT refugees in Canada prove their claims 4-Aug-08 Last week MP Thomas Mulcair exploded at hecklers in the Commons and later shed tears at a news conference after Immigration Minister Diane Finley refused to allow Canada's latest gay refugee claimant Kulenthiran Amirthalingam stay in the country on compassionate...
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Saturday, March 15
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Source: Independent , Radio Netherlands , CNN International , Washington Post A gay teenager spared an immediate return to Iran, where he claims he faces the death penalty, said yesterday that he will only feel safe if the Home Secretary personally guarantees his right to remain in Britain. As his case has made its way through tribunals in two countries, it has exposed the complex web of rules governing immigration in European Union countries. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, who lost his asylum claim in Britain even though it was alleged that his former boyfriend was executed for sodomy, spoke openly to London's...
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Thursday, March 13
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Source: Times (London) , ABC News , BBC News , The Independent Mehdi Kazemi, the gay Iranian teenager facing deportation from Britain and execution in his home country, has been handed a temporary reprieve. The UK rejected his first asylum plea, but Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has now granted him a temporary reprieve from deportation while she reconsiders his case. Ms Smith said: “Following representations made on behalf of Mehdi Kazemi, and in the light of new circumstances since the original decision was made, I have decided that Mr Kazemi’s case should be reconsidered on his return to...
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Tuesday, March 11
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Source: Times (London) , PinkNews A gay teenager who faces being hanged if sent back to Iran is a step closer to being forced to return today, after the Netherlands followed Britain in refusing his appeal for asylum. In response, a gay member of the House of Lords has demanded the government take action to stop the deportation. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but says he later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged. He claimed asylum in Britain, saying that he feared for his life if he returned. However, his...
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Saturday, March 08
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Source: Edmonton Journal , CBC News , Xtra OTTAWA -- A gay Montreal man has lost his bid to halt his deportation to his native Malaysia where he faces the possibility of being imprisoned under laws that declare homosexuality a crime. Kulenthiran Amirthalingam boarded a flight to Malaysia Thursday after Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley rejected an appeal by Outremont MP Thomas Mulcair to grant a ministerial certificate to allow Amirthalingam to remain in Canada on compassionate grounds. Related in Qnews: Experts say Canada needs better rules for gay refugees after sending gay man...
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Friday, March 07
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Source: Press Association , Independent , Associated Press A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when his boyfriend was executed in Iran is battling authorities who want to return him to his home country. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged. His plea for asylum has now been joined by that of an Iranian lesbian who is also battling for asylum in England. Pegah Emambakhsh, 40, fled to Britain after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death, but faces...
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Thursday, March 06
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Source: Montreal Gazette and CBC Montreal -- In the latest of several similar cases, a Malaysian man who is to be deported Thursday after being refused refugee status is pleading with the federal government to intervene and let him stay in Canada. Kulenthiran Amirthalingan made a last-ditch appeal to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, asking her to stay the March 6 deportation order to his native Malaysia. He fears persecution because he is gay. His voice cracking and his eyes filling with tears at an Ottawa press conference, the Montreal resident made his plea to avoid being deported today, saying...
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Monday, February 25
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Source: Toronto Star and New York Times Mandeville police officer Michael Hayden seeks asylum in Canada photo: New York Times A Jamaican police officer says he's living in fear after coming out as a gay man and hopes to come to Canada where he can safely speak up on behalf of other gay Jamaicans. Michael Hayden, who has been on the police force for four years, said other officers routinely attacked and abused him after becoming suspicious of his sexual preferences. A couple of weeks back, a local tabloid, The Jamaica Star, ran a screaming headline when Hayden, disturbed by the attack on the...
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Monday, February 25
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Source: AKI - Adnkronos Rome, 25 Feb.(AKI) - Human rights groups scheduled a protest in front of the British Embassy in Rome on Monday, aimed at drawing attention to the plight of a 19-year old Iranian gay man. Seyed Mehdi Kazemi is scheduled to be deported back to his native Iran where he faces the death penalty on account of his sexual orientation. Kazemi reportedly left Tehran in 2005 to study in London and was pressured to apply for asylum in Britain after the alleged discovery by Iranian authorities of his homosexual relationship with another man, known as 'Parvat' who was sentenced...
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Thursday, February 14
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Source: CBC News and PinkNews A prominent member of gay rights group J-FLAG, Jamaica's Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, is claiming refugee status in Canada. Gareth Henry, who spoke at Pride London last year about the plight of lesbian and gay people in his country, told CBC News that 13 of his friends have been killed in the last four years. One 22-year-old friend who was suspected of being gay was chased by a mob, Henry told CBC News. The only place he could run to was the harbour. He couldn't swim. "Everyone," said Henry, "stood and watched him drown." On...
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Friday, January 11
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Source: Trinidad & Tobago Express via UK Gay News Trinidad-born "Jessie Hanes" (a pseudonym), a gay, HIV-positive man living in New York who was granted asylum by a US court recently, would be pleasantly surprised to learn that HIV/AIDS patients in Trinidad and Tobago today, receive free medicine and are accepted both within their families and at the workplace, Beverly King, an HIV/AIDS social worker has said. She said that 20 years ago, not even families accepted one of their own who tested positive for HIV. "We lived in a society, at that time, in which people were afraid to...
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Friday, January 04
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Source: Gay City News A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, ruled on December 20 that a gay Egyptian man should receive a further hearing from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which earlier rejected his bid to stay in the US. The man, referred to in the opinion as John Doe, argued that he met the standard for remaining here under both the Immigration and Nationality Act and the international Convention Against Torture. Writing for the court, Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter rejected the petitioner's argument that the BIA's decision...
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Saturday, December 29
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Source: Denver Post Since 1965, U.S. immigration policy has had a clearly stated priority: "family reunification." In the past five years alone, this policy has enabled the legal spouses of 1.3 million Americans to gain permanent legal residency here. But for the 35,820 U.S. citizens counted by the 2000 census as living with same-gender partners from other countries — nearly half with children — this provision does not apply. If separated, binational gay and lesbian families trying to unify, legally, can face a bureaucratic, heartbreaking and often insurmountable challenge. Caught in...
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Tuesday, December 25
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Source: UK Gay News LONDON, December 24, 2007 – It was not the Christmas present that a young gay Iranian wanted. A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Mehdi, the gay Iranian teenager, has to be returned to the United Kingdom, where he faces deportation back to Iran. [prior story] He fled England last spring when a Home Office tribunal dismissed his appeal against deportation. “I was refused the right to appeal of asylum in the Netherlands because of the Dublin Treaty,” he said by telephone this afternoon. The Dublin Treaty, or Convention, is a European Union law that prevents asylum applicants...
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Tuesday, December 25
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Source: Chicago Tribune Chicago's immigrant rights movement was on the verge of making history, and Nicole Perez was ready to lend her voice when she was told, with an angry sneer, that she was not welcome. That was March 10, 2006. Perez and her lesbian partner, Xiomara Santana, had joined more than 100,000 demonstrators in the Loop for a march that kicked off a nationwide struggle for immigrant rights. Holding hands, the U.S.-born women looked at the Latino faces around them and were reminded of their own families. Then an elderly man 2 feet away cursed at the couple, spitting out: "Why...
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Friday, December 21
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Source: UK Gay News LONDON -- A young gay Iranian, who fled the United Kingdom in fear after his asylum application with the Home Office’s Border and Immigration Agency failed earlier this year, will be spending the festive season hoping that a Dutch court will allow him to stay in the Netherlands. UK Gay News highlighted the plight of 19 years-old Mehdi in April following the failure of his appeal against deportation from UK back to Iran. Mehdi had arrived in the UK two years previously on a student visa and had completed his education in England. Before leaving Iran, the teen had not only come...
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Thursday, November 29
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Source: Gay City News by Doug Ireland Since November 7, a mild-mannered 40-year-old gay Iranian businessman from Rockville, Maryland has been sitting in jail in the Frederick County, Maryland Detention Center, housed with common criminals, in the living hell of limbo between the freedom he has known since he came to the United States as a young man 17 years ago and the certain persecution, imprisonment, or worse that will be his fate as a gay man if he is sent back to Iran. A deportation order to send him back there has been issued, and any day he could be put on a plane back to Tehran, where he...
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