Which is not a good situation to be in. So boys and girls, here we go, the background-
Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.
In a phone conversation with his father in Tehran, Mr Kazemi was told that, before the execution in April 2006, his boyfriend had been questioned about sexual relations he had with other men and under interrogation had named Mr Kazemi. Fearing for his own life if he returned to Iran, Mr Kazemi claimed asylum in Britain. Late last year, his claim was refused. Terror-stricken at the prospect of being deported, he made a desperate attempt to evade deportation by fleeing to the Netherlands
What happened in the Netherlands (from Paul Canning’s blog)-
As you may be aware from the BBC, the 19 year old gay Iranian refugee Mehdi Kazemi has lost his case in the Netherlands and the Dutch are refusing to reconsider.
The United Kingdom had sent a formal request to Holland asking for Mehdi’s return to Britain, in order to proceed with his deportation to Iran.
Now then the Home Office/Border and Immigration Agency are (well not fit for the purpose) operating a policy of appeasing immigration demagoguing scum stoked by tabloid imbecility so they routinely ignore the dangers people face if forced back to their countries. In this case it also reveals their absurd and bigoted hypocrisy-
Home Office’s position is that people like Mehdi can be homosexual ‘on the quiet’, therefore no ‘risk’, therefore we can send them back. That somehow homosexuality is a ‘lifestyle choice’. Meaning that they ‘choose’ to be persecuted, they ‘choose to break laws’.
The problem is a homophobic Home Office whose actual policy towards gay refugees is interchangeable with Iranian policy towards gays: it’s a ‘choice’.
So current state of play- he is on his way back to Britain where sufficient pressure and visibility will force the Home Office to actually live up to their pretence that they do not deport people who would be in danger. So, bring the noise-
Home Secretary, The Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP
House of Commons, Westminster,
London, SW1A 0AA
By Telephone and Fax : 01527 523355
By E mail: smithjj@parliament.uk
Home Office email
public.enquiries@ homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
indpublicenquiries@ ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
And of course sane and intelligent people can do this without it meaning bombing Iran is a splendid idea. I’m sorry I have to always say this, but right wingers & war pimps really are that stupid.
14 March, 2008 at 9:34 pm
A gay Iranian being warned by his Dad that his “boyfriend” who was hanged had called his name in confessions?!!!
uhmmm … I hope this story is false; and poor Mehdi Kazemi is just seeking asylum because … well human right abuse is the easiest and fastest way for all Iranians to get a residency from a western country!
I think, If the civilized world did not have as many travel/immigration restrictions against the poor people of the IRI, we would not have heard about so many HR horror stories.
Anyways, I hope Mehdi Kazemi is safe.
14 March, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hey Naj, he is safe for now-
http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/mehdi-kazemi-safe-for-now/
I think the call also involved his father threatening to kill him too! So it was not a friendly warning, his dad may have embellished but the message was- (if you) come back here, you are in big trouble.
His life back home was screwed and then the UK just piled on more misery.
Yes there is really nothing very ‘civilized’ about endless crushing bureaucracy stopping the free movement of people. But it seems politician’s rarely tire of demonising
a country while simultaneously treating people in similar ways to the abuses they allege in their projected demagoguery. Our immigration system is horrible, prisons for people who have done nothing except travel & work without the correct bits of paper and often staffed with bigoted authoritarians who are attracted to situations where other ethnicities are powerless to fend off abuses. Beatings and rape go unreported in a climate of fear and surveillance and all cheered on by dreadful newspapers whose rhetoric is only a slight remove from Nazi dogma.
I mean human rights should be a no brainer, we are all human so we can all appreciate not being treated badly, but the discourse does reveal that in fact some ideologies necessarily include depriving some people of their equal status. The shitty newspapers as well as hating migrants also complain about human rights, as if they were some other race that doesn’t suffer as we do, what they really mean is how dare ‘other’ people not submit to our authority and complain when our gang trample over them. With our gang usually meaning white rich men with a penchant for sadism and hoarding wealth.
Still at least we developed a great word in this country for all these people- wankers!
15 March, 2008 at 3:29 pm
The shitty newspapers as well as hating migrants also complain about human rights, as if they were some other race that doesn’t suffer as we do
I was in London last week, and I noticed the very subtle way teh news papers propagated hatred of the “other” namely the Muslim kind! Very clever and subtle they are: reporting sharia practices, revenge killings and forced marriages!
Yes it is very plausible that Kazemi’s dad would be the first to kill him! The extent of barbarism in relation to sexual conducts is universally disturbing. Constituents fire politicians for sexing around; fathers kill their gay children … man this world needs improvement. (Yet I want to move to London!
)
15 March, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Not so subtle! Yep there is a sustained campaign to stigmatise ‘others’ the worst offenders are The Daily Express, The Daily Mail and the absolute dregs- The Sun.
Frankly reading one of those is a cry for help, see a friend with one of them and it’s time for an intervention and if that fails, get some new friends!
Yes, I think we still have here a ‘homosexual panic’ defence where murderers defend their actions saying a pass at them by someone of the same sex caused them to ‘panic & uncontrollably’ kill the person in ’self defence’. I don’t think it gets used so much but it is still there.
The Najster in The Smoke!!! Does London deserve such an honour? Well if you do I might have to leave my secure undisclosed location and treat you to a mug of tea!
18 March, 2008 at 1:50 am
Yes it was Daily Mail I was reading; rather devouring on the plane! one needs such stuff to deal with Jet lag! Guardian was not that much better!
I am afraid I will ask for that tea, once my new bosses have made up their mind and have met my financial demands!! (I “just” realized you are a foolish artist, and not a computer wizard!)
18 March, 2008 at 2:19 am
On my God the Mail!!! I’m so sorry for you. The Guardian’s a mixed bag, between it and The Independent they are the least worse choices if you have to read a paper in the 3D world.
Foolish artist? And proud! Well if you get the deal you want I might throw in some cake to celebrate. Oh yeah, British hospitality at it’s best, tea and cake!