This morning, I intend to get round to two items lurking in my in-tray. These are, respectively, a heartening story about a successful British gay asylum case that involves a gay Iranian man, and a developing item about the risks of an overseas HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical, although I’m holding off on the latter until I get NZAF feedback.

Yesterday, BBC News told us that a previously refused gay Iranian asylum seeker had been granted residency permission to stay in Great Britain. Mehdi Kazemi (19) was a student, leaving a boyfriend behind in Iran, where ‘repeated’ incidents of lesbian or gay sex alike are a capital offence under Shia shariah law in that country. Sadly, exactly that fate befell Mehdi’s lover. UK Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes has been leading a concerted campaign to force the Home Office to relent from its previous decision to deport Mehdi back to Iran, where, as Hughes stated, he would “be at risk of persecution, torture or death.”

Excellent news. The Liberal Democrats and UK Greens are strong critics of current UK LGBT refugee and asylum seeker policy, which mandates that potential LGBT applicants from overseas must demonstrate proof of their LGBT identities. Given the fiercely homophobic conditions prevailing in some of their countries of origin, this is often a short-sighted request. However, in a positive development, UK embassies have been instructed to accentuate Brown administration concerns about homophobic human rights abuses abroad.

Source:

“Gay Iranian granted asylum in UK”: BBC News: 21.05.08: http://news.bbc.co.uk