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community newsplease login to add to this item  Asylum at lastFriday, 23 May 2008 “I am so happy,” was the response from gay 19-year-old Iranian Mahdi Kazemi this week as the British Home Office granted him leave to stay in the UK for five years. Asylum guarantees Kazemi reprieve from a return to Iran where the penalty for homosexuality is definitely prosecution and possibly death. Kazemi, 19, moved to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged. Fearing the same fate, he applied for asylum in Britain but was denied in 2007. Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP said of the decision “Like Mehdi and his family in Britain, I am delighted by the Home Office decision. As I have argued over the last 18 months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian people back to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or worse." Kazemi maybe safe in the UK as of this week but there are still many across the world facing prosecution. Gay Syrian refugee JoJo Jako Yakob fled his homeland after being arrested, shot and beaten before being tortured in a Syrian jail when he was caught distributing anti-government leaflets. He suffered daily beatings when prison guards realised he was gay. The Home Office response? An offer of £46 to go home plus a weekly letter asking his permission to be "repatriated" back to Syria and to lock him up in a Young Offenders Institution. Campaigning played a vital role Kazemi’s case for asylum. It appears more is needed. www.madhikazemi.com |
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said by wildblood
on Saturday, 24 May 2008, 11:38am
Just thought I'd share the following statement from Madhi Kazemi
"I found out on Monday 19th of May 2008 that the government had granted me refugee status for the next five years. I am so happy about this and I just want to say thank you to all the people of Britain, The Netherlands, Italy and across Europe, Canada, America and the world, who have shown their concern for me, who have given me the support that I really needed and who have worked very hard to help me through difficult times and to get me to where I am now. I wouldn’t be alive if hadn’t been for your help. I will never forget everything that you have done."