Greens condemn UK Borders Agency for "cowardly" stance

20 February 2009

The Green Party today welcomed a High Court decision which severely criticised home secretary Jacqui Smith over a "manifestly unlawful" deportation of a gay asylum seeker last year.

The Greens applauded the decision by judge Sir George Newman, who has ordered Labour's home secretary to find the 38-year-old man and return him to Britain.

Mr X (1) had been "deliberately misled" by the UK Border Agency, deprived of his right to seek legal advice before his removal and tortured (2)

Joseph Healy, Green Party Euro-election candidate for London, today condemned "this cowardly and illegal action by the Borders Agency."

Mr Healey, who is himself gay, said: “This man may now be dead or tortured, for all we know. Clearly this is of no significance to the Borders Agency, who are egged on by the callous disregard for human rights of this morally bankrupt New Labour government. This is part of an overall deeply concerning approach to LGBT asylum seekers and needs to end immediately. I congratulate the judge involved on his humane and fair approach to this deeply serious issue.”

Phelim Mac Cafferty, the media officer for of the Green Party Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Group added: “Here we have yet more evidence of the UK Borders Agency depriving immigrants of their rights, and the use of torture against LGBT asylum seekers on UK soil. The case of Mr X follows the decision by the Agency two weeks ago to deport a gay Iraqi who is almost certainly being sent back to persecution and hatred."

Phelim continued: “Mr X joins the many LGBTs who’ve fled persecution, rape and torture in their home countries. He fled to our country and the Labour government's response was to lock him up like a criminal and then throw him out to certain further torture.

"The Green Party says enough is enough of the contradictory policies of a government which on the one hand talks of their commitment to LGBT equality but which is still deporting LGBTs to torture and persecution."

Phelim concluded:

“To restore any kind of faith in the UK Borders Agency, we now need as a bare minimum:

1. Compulsory training for all asylum staff on sexual-orientation and trans-awareness.

2. Explicit instructions to all immigration and asylum staff, and asylum judges, that homo, bi and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for granting asylum.

3. Clearer and up-to-date guidance from the Home Office for asylum judges to reflect the accurate scale of LGBT persecution throughout the world using expert information from NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

4. Legal-aid funding for asylum claims needs to be substantially increased.”

Notes:

1. Neither the asylum-seeker nor the country to which he was sent can be named.

2. According to The Independent newspaper of Friday 20th February: “Mr X said that, last September, he was deceived into thinking he was being taken from Tinsley House immigration removal centre, on the perimeter of Gatwick airport, for an interview with an immigration officer. Instead, without warning, he was taken in a van by four security men to a plane…He said that, when he resisted leaving the van, he was handcuffed, and punched in his private parts to make him straighten his legs so they could be belted together. Crying, he was lifted on to the aeroplane and flown out of the country.” See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/deporting-gay-asylumseeker-was-unlawful-1627052.html .





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