Home Office Would Deport Teen To His Death

LONDON, 7 MARCH 2008 — The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) condemns the decision of the Home Office to deport a gay Iranian teenager, Mehdi Kazemi. This is after the outcry over their decision last year to deport an Iranian lesbian, Pegah Emambakhsh, whose circumstances were similar. Neither case has been resolved and both Pegah Emambakhsh and Mehdi Kazemi face an uncertain future.

“Deporting gay and lesbian people to Iran is akin to deporting Jews back to Nazi Germany,” said Jim Herrick, chair of GALHA.

“The Home Office can hardly be unaware of the fate awaiting LGBT people in Iran. Their decision in unconscionable.”

“In 2005, 26-year-old Hussein Nasseri, a gay Iranian, committed suicide rather than be returned to Iran after his asylum application was turned down. A year before that, Israfil Shiri, another gay Iranian, killed himself by setting himself on fire outside an asylum centre in protest against his pending deportation. Both preferred to die by their own hand in the UK rather than face inhuman torture and execution in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Mr Herrick.