By Ben Turner
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Netherlands’ highest court, the Council of State, rejected an asylum plea by a gay Iranian teenager trying to escape potential prosecution in his home country. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, says he will be arrested and executed if he is returned to Iran because he is gay.
Kazemi traveled to Britain in 2005 to study English. While there, his former boyfriend in Iran was executed for sodomy. Legal papers claim that Iranian authorities questioned Kazemi’s boyfriend about sexual relations he had with other men and, under interrogation, named Kazemi as his partner.
After learning about his boyfriend’s death, Kazemi applied for asylum in the UK. In a letter to the UK Home Secretary, Kazemi said, “I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But . . . my situation has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me. I cannot stop my attraction towards men . . . I was born with the feeling and cannot change this fact . . . If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed.”
After the British government denied Kazemi’s appeal, he fled to the Netherlands. Dutch immigration authorities are more lenient with gay Iranians and afford them special status in asylum claims because of Iran’s hard line against homosexuality.
The European Union’s Dublin Regulation of 2003 holds members of the EU to an agreement that an application for asylum submitted in any EU country will be handled by that country alone. The regulation seeks to ensure than an asylum seeker is not redirected from country to country simply because no one will take responsibility.
The Dutch Council of State abided by the Dublin Regulation and declined to hear the asylum request. Kazemi’s last option is to ask his lawyer to request an “interim measure” that would allow Kazemi to stay in Europe until future notice.
“If anybody signs his deportation papers and says, look, he’s got to be deported to Iran, that means they have signed his death sentence,” said Kazemi’s uncle Saeed, who asked to withhold his last name over safety concerns.
For more information, please see:
Associated Press – Dutch Court Nixes Gay Asylum Seeker Bid – 11 March 2008
BBC – Gay Iranian Man Loses Asylum Plea – 11 March 2008
CNN – Gay Iranian Teen Loses Asylum Appeal – 11 March 2008
Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Dutch Court Rejects Appeal by Gay Iranian Man – 11 March 2008
The Times (London) – Gay Teenager is Facing Gallows as his Asylum Bid is Rejected – 11 March 2008
