The Department of Home Affairs fought for 18 months to suppress the transcript of its highly personal and “intrusive” interviews with two men claiming refugee status on the basis of their homosexuality, documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show. The department only relented after it appeared that an appeal against the department’s refusal to release the interview questions would probably succeed.

BuzzFeed News has previously reported on the controversial 2012 interview, in which a government officer asked the two Bangladeshi men, who said they were in a de facto relationship, whether they swallowed each other’s semen; whether either man ejaculated during sex the night before; how long their intercourse lasted; and other detailed, intimate questions. The home affairs department admitted the questions were "inappropriate and insensitive".

Now BuzzFeed News can reveal that the department only released the transcript of questions after a sustained fight, including an appeal to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

The existence of the interview came to light after the men’s successful 2014 Refugee Review Tribunal appeal against the decision to deny them protection visas was published online. Sending the men’s applications back to the government, the tribunal described the questions as “very intimate”. “I found the questions intrusive and are not ones I have ever found it necessary to ask of applicants claiming to be homosexual,” the tribunal member said.