Gay men living in Morocco at risk of jail could be finally set free of their fears as the Ministry of Health has called for the country to decriminalize homosexuality.

The study released today (8 June), carried in 2013, discovered growing prevalence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among the country’s LGBTI community.

It calls for a change in policy and an end to the stigma associated with homosexuality in order to address the problem, according to Morocco World News.

The recommendation has been backed by Minister of Health El Houssaine Louardi.

The news follows an incident on 2 June when two French activists from the human rights group Femen were kicked out of the country for staging a topless same-sex kiss at the site of an ancient mosque.

In May, three Moroccan men accused of homosexuality were jailed for three years – the longest sentence Moroccan courts can deliver for carrying out what it calls ‘a deviant act with a person of the same sex’.

In a statement carried by the news website Telquel, Femen said the case was ‘the latest example in a long series of cases where Morocco has imprisoned people because of homosexuality’.

Human Rights Watch has called on Morocco to decriminalize homosexuality, saying ‘criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct violates international human rights law’.

Although homosexuality is still illegal in most Middle Eastern and North African countries, it is legally tolerated in Jordan and Bahrain.