As a gay asylum seeker, I was lucky | Anonymo | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY REFUGE SEEK ASYLUM U.S.
• JUDGE ORRS U.S. TO RETURN GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER PORTED TO CHAD
• AS A GAY ASYLUM SEEKER, I WAS LUCKY
• TMP YEARS WERE TERRIFYG FOR GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER
• GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS FACE THREAT OM FELLOW REFUGE EUROPE
• EUROPE IS TELLG GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS THEY ARE NOT GAY ENOUGHEUROPE IS TELLG GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS THEY ARE NOT GAY ENOUGH
• HOW EUROPE TERM WHETHER ASYLUM-SEEKERS ARE GAY

GAY REFUGE SEEK ASYLUM U.S.

Fernando, 37, who asked that his full name not be ed, was a driver at a sugar factory Guatemala, where he’d endured a lifetime of anti-gay slurs, discrimatn at work, and random beatgs.

Also, Victoria Nielson wh Immigratn Equaly, a group that works to help gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people seekg asylum, talks about the work of her group.

DOS SANTOS: Police, if you are leavg a gay bar, for stance, you're safe once you're si sometim, but when you're leavg, that's a problem. I mean, we fd that wh our gay male s, that many untri, the police themselv sgle out gay people gay bars and will raid them, will arrt people and ta them whout charg, often force them to have oral sex wh them or place them holdg cells wh sort of mon crimals and let the mon crimals know that the are, you know, a bunch of faggots or somethg along those l. Even as heated as the gay rights bate n be the Uned Stat, I thk 's difficult for the Uned Stat to envisn the level of hatred that people feel toward homosexualy other parts of the world.

JUDGE ORRS U.S. TO RETURN GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER PORTED TO CHAD

Frankly, the rds are still stacked agast gay people, bee the most mon way for dividuals to get immigratn stat the Uned Stat is through fay-based immigratn, through havg a hband or wife sponsor an dividual for a green rd.

AS A GAY ASYLUM SEEKER, I WAS LUCKY

We equently receive e-mails that are heartrendg om people, you know, Iran or Qatar sayg, you know, I'm gay and I fear for my life.

We're also joed by Victoria Neilson, legal director at Immigratn Equaly, a group New York that helps gay, lbian and bisexual and transgenr people get asylum the Uned Stat. This is the story of Victor, a Nigerian man who fled home bee beg gay is a crime and who wants his story to be one of hope [story llected by Elisa Menenz for Metro]. Has been livg the UK for 10 years, after movg om Kenya where gay sex rri a prison sentence of up to 14 years, and recently taed.

For the World Refugee Day '19, we would like to pay tribute to those volunteers who help all migrants, cludg people fleeg homophobia and transphobia, so they n feel everywhere at 'home'. Aniyi Raji’s story nfirms the difficulti experienced by gay asylum seekers havg their asylum requt regnised [story llected by The Guardian]. As part of [Gay Star News] Bi+ Manifto season, sperate asylum seekers have shared the vastatg realy the ways they are discrimated agast once they reach ‘safer shor’.

TMP YEARS WERE TERRIFYG FOR GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER

In a report published 2016 by Stonewall and the UK Lbian and Gay Immigratn Group (UKLGIG), several LGBT asylum seekers talk about their experienc wh UK tentn centr. Skhumbuzo Khumalo fled Zimbabwe, where homosexualy is illegal, after fearg for her life - only to be subjected to ‘gradg’ treatment on arrival the UK (by Harriet Hernando - 2016).

Lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) urban refuge Mexi, Uganda and South Ai tell their stori their own powerful and thentic voic. In January 2016, a gay asylum seeker the UK said he was facg portatn to Malawi bee he didn’t have enough ‘proof’ of his sexualy. Another report by the Swedish advocy group RFSL—the Swedish Feratn for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer and Intersex rights—shows that mistaken prenceptns and expectatns about LGBTQ+ people on the part of migratn thori have a signifint impact on their procsg of asylum applitns on the grounds of sexual orientatn, genr inty and exprsn.

“For example, a mor who clearly scribed herself as a trans woman was tried and asssed as a ‘homosexual man’ spe submtg extensive evince of genr-affirmg treatment. “To habate and have a sexual relatnship wh someone of the same sex do not make one homosexual, acrdg to the migratn thori, whout verbal acunt for a ep, emotnal procs of self-awarens about the sexual orientatn, ” the report ntu. Seidu, who intified as bisexual, had left Ghana, where any form of homosexualy is punishable by at least three years prison, and spent nearly a year travelg through South and Central Ameri orr to apply for asylum the U.

GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS FACE THREAT OM FELLOW REFUGE EUROPE

A feral judge has orred the Department of Homeland Secury to return a gay asylum-seeker who was ported to Chad, lg that the ernment had not properly nsired his asylum claim based on his stat as a gay man before portg Yai arrived the U.

”“Obvly, imprisonment or ath would foreclose Yai’s abily to pursue his motn to reopen, ” Breyer wrote his orr, referrg to the possible punishment Yai uld face as a gay man Chad. In the Uned Stat, asylum-seekers have been succsful wh claims of potential persecutn bee of membership a “social group, ” namely the LGBTQ 1994, Attorney General Ja Reno orred that the lg the se of a Cuban gay asylum-seeker, Fil Armando Toboso-Alfonso, should be the guidance for future s, th cementg an earlier cisn fdg that Taboso-Alfonso was eligible for asylum bee of his membership the LGBTQ “social group” and the threat of polil vlence he would face if he were forced to return to his home untry of C.

A young gay man om Serbia who moved to the UK to pe the horrors of vlent homophobic attacks stggl to be believed as thori qutn his sexualy.

EUROPE IS TELLG GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS THEY ARE NOT GAY ENOUGHEUROPE IS TELLG GAY ASYLUM SEEKERS THEY ARE NOT GAY ENOUGH

As a person who has shared the same strs of beg a gay asylum seeker the UK wh lots of other applints, I was happy yterday to hear that the aln agreement between the Tori and the Lib Dems clud a promise to "stop the portatn of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular untri bee their sexual orientatn or genr intifitn puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or executn" everybody is as lucky as I was seekg asylum the Uned Kgdom. Wh a month after my asylum terview wh the Home Office I had the posive cisn my hand, partly bee I had a huge ternatnal support and also partly bee my applitn was mostly based on my polil activi rather than my homosexualy.

The first one is the strongt but 's the latter that is given to gay asylum seekers almost all of the Home Office's attu toward gay asylum seekers the UK has been very ntroversial recent years. It is said that the UK protects those homosexuals who have well-found fear of persecutn were they to return to their home untri but arbrary cisns have been ma, too. In regards to Iran, although s notor rerd of executg homosexuals is very well documented by ternatnal human rights anisatns, large numbers of gay Iranian s have been turned down every year.

Recently, a new report on the treatment of lbian and gay asylum claims the UK found that the refal rate was 90%, pared wh 73% for all the claims generally. In two recent Iranian s, one applint, known as "J" had to go to appeals urt after his claim was surprisgly, the asylum applitn for Kiana Firouz, a lbian Iranian actrs who has been urageoly public about her homosexualy, was turned down.

HOW EUROPE TERM WHETHER ASYLUM-SEEKERS ARE GAY

"Of urse, 's hard for officials to verify someone's homosexualy, and some have exprsed ncern that fake claims are likely to be ma. Amnty Internatnal and Human Rights Watch have also documented the persecutn of homosexuals Boroumand Foundatn, a US-based Iranian human rights anisatn, has also rerd 146 executns wh charg related to homosexualy sce 1979.