Sadly our Home Office fails to accept that the Iranian regime routinely execute homosexuals. Indeed they take the attitude that that gay people can return to Iran safely providing they are 'discreet'. How they expect Mehdi to remain discreet is beyond me. He was named under interrogation of his now executed boyfriend, he's been all over the press due to our government and that of the Netherlands intransigence so his chances of discretion are next to nil.
The Foreign and Commowealth Office have papers that Mohsen Yahyavi, a senior Iranian politician thinks that the 'crime' of homosexuality deserves execution, torture or possibly both. The Home Office refusing to comment on this individual case but lie in their statement that:
"The Government is committed to providing protection for those individuals found to be genuinely in need, in accordance with our commitments under international law.We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return."
Clearly that wasn't the case last year when Mr. Kazemi appealed for asylum with them and was turned down. Jacqui Smith is clearly maintaining the Home Office mantra of not being fit for purpose if this man is sent to certain death.
Stephen
ReplyDeletemany thanks for covering this. You can find more about the Urgent appeal for Mehdi Kazem here > http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2008/03/urgent-appeal-mehdi-kazemi-please-help.html
and updates about the case here > http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2008/02/update-iranian-gay-deportee-mehdi.html
cheers
Paul Canning
Let's hope common sense prevails. Unfortunately, the Dutch were probably constrained by the confines of the Treaty of Dublin, but that's no excuse for our Home Office to behave in such an appalling way.
ReplyDeleteI e-mailed my (Labour) MP ad got a response that he was meeting the home secretary this week to speak up for Mehdi. Sending him back to Iran is just unacceptable.