mothwing | Deport-a-gay day?

Whenever I read about them, I find another reason to hate the asylum systems of most Western countries (probably because I only ever read about stories where they tragically), but I had always thought that Canada and the UK sucked just a little less, were a little less scary.
Not so, I found after reading a post on

queer_rage.

From the Independent, today: Gay man facing death due to impending deportation from the UK, to Iran - where he might face execution.

"A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when his boyfriend was executed by the Iranian authorities now faces the same fate after losing his legal battle for asylum. 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." [...]
"According to Iranian human rights campaigners, more than 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. The last reported case of the death penalty imposed against a gay man was that of Makwan Moloudzadeh, 21, who was executed in December after being convicted for sodomy, or lavat, a capital offence under Iranian law.
Last year, the Foreign Office released correspondence sent between embassies throughout the EU dating back to May 2005. They refer specifically to the case of two gay youths, Mahmoud Asqari, under 18 at the time of his execution, and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in public.
The Home Office's own guidance issued to immigration officers concedes that Iran executes homosexual men but, unaccountably, rejects the claim that there is a systematic repression of gay men and lesbians.
The Government has a policy of not commenting on individual cases but a Home Office spokeswoman said: "The UK Government is committed to providing protection for those individuals found to be genuinely in need, in accordance with our commitments under international law. If an application is refused, there is a right of appeal to an independent judge, and we only return those who have been found by the asylum decision-making process and the independent courts not to need international protection."

From the the Montreal Gazette, today: Gay man facing death due to impending deportation from Canada, back to Malaysia - where he might be sent to prison.

"His refugee claim was rejected, however, on the ground the panel hearing his claim did not believe it was credible." [...]

"In its travel report for Malaysia, the Canadian government warns Canadians that homosexuality is against the law in that country. "Homosexuality is illegal," the department's website says. "Convicted offenders may face lengthy jail sentences and fines."

Matthew McLauchlin, co-chairman of the NDP's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender positive action committee, said Amirthalingam's case illustrates an emerging trend in refugee issues and highlights the shortcomings in Canada's refugee system in evaluating their cases.

"There is a young man in Toronto who was told the judge didn't think he was gay because he wasn't having sex at age 14 when he was living non-status with Seventh-day Adventists," McLauchlin said.

"There have been women told they couldn't be lesbian because they have long hair and showed up for the interviews in high heels. These people have no training whatsoever in how to deal with these issues.

"There were an estimated 2,000 gay and lesbian refugee claimants in 2004, McLauchlin said."

I don't even want to think about what the German authorities would do in these cases. I can't shake off the nagging suspicion that the people in question would already be on the plane home and none of our daily newspaper could be bothered to cover the story.