Green Party LGBT News

LGBT Greens: don't deport Mehdi Kazemi back to Iran	6 March 2008
Summary LGBT Greens: don't deport Mehdi Kazemi back to Iran UK- recognise special group status of LGBT people

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UK- recognise special group status of LGBT people

Reacting to news of the possible deportation of Mehdi Kazemi, a gay, Iranian threatened with death, LGBT Greens have today called for a re-evaluation of his case and better decision-making regarding asylum across Europe.

Reacting to the news that Mr Kazemi could be deported, Phelim Mac Cafferty said, "Mehdi Kazemi is a gay Iranian man who while studying in the UK learnt of the hanging of a former boyfriend. Fearing the worst for himself, he applied and failed to get asylum from the British authorities in 2006. Fleeing to the Netherlands, he planned to seek asylum there.

"Under the Dublin Regulations Mehdi can be sent back from the Netherlands. These regulations allow member states to send asylum-seekers back to the country where they originally claimed asylum.

"In the Netherlands he has been given special group status as a young gay man. The UK does not recognise the status of LGBT people with regard to homophobic regimes such as that in Iran. And unless the Home Office reviews his case, Mr Kazemi may face deportation.

"If he is deported the Home Secretary is effectively handing Mehdi a death sentence as he is known to the authorities as the former partner of a man executed for 'sodomy'. Friends of his have described his state of mind as 'very depressed' and immigration authorities have been put on suicide watch while Mr Kazemi is in their care. While one of his friends, Omar Kuddus, had this to say: "[if we] allow this fellow homosexual man to be executed, then we are no better than those who actually perpetrate the crime.""

Phelim continued: "We must plea now with the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to stop Mehdi being deported back to Iran. We urge everyone to contact the Home Secretary at smithjj@parliament.uk and 020 7035 4848 and to sign the online petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/UKMADHI/

"We really have to ask what cruelty drove UK Home Office officials to threaten to deport a man who faced and continues to face torture and extermination at the hands of the Iranian regime for being gay. Mehdi Kazemi deserves above all the right to life and those of us who can now need to support his right.

"Further we have to campaign for the rights of LGBT asylum seekers who go voiceless almost throughout the entirety of the world and campaign against the despicable treatment of LGBT people throughout the world which forces them to seek asylum in the first place.""

Other Greens have commented on the issue too:-
Peter Tatchell (LGBT Campaigner and Green Party candidate for Oxford East at the next general election) cites this as "the latest example of the Government putting the aims of cutting asylum numbers before the merits of individual cases."

Jean Lambert Green MEP for London who has signed an appeal to the European Commission and the Prime Ministers of the UK and the Netherlands [2] regarding this case has today called for a re-evaluation of his case:
"The law is clear that no-one should be returned to a country where their life would be in danger and it seems that Mr Kazemi has a very strong case for asylum. All European countries must prove that their systems will protect people like him and that they can respond effectively to changes in circumstances, as in this case."

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