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Sexual orientation should be considered grounds for asylum
Sexual orientation should be considered grounds for asylum
The High Court has suspended the deportation of Valéry Ediage Ekwedde, a Cameroonian man who says he will be persecuted and possibly killed if he is sent back home. Mr Ekwedde is a homosexual and homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon. The UK border agency wants to deport him as an illegal immigrant and says that it has found ‘no credible evidence’ that he is gay. Mr Ekwedde however argues "If I go back there, my life is really in danger… I feel very bad and depressed about it because my life is in danger. They will kill me over there." The border agency however believes that “we do not remove individuals who have demonstrated a proven risk of persecution on grounds of sexual orientation. When someone needs our protection, they will be given it" and that in Ekwedde’s case he is in no need of asylum. The high court injunction however gives him more time to make his case and reverse what Ekwedde’s solicitor called an ‘irrational and unreasonable decision’ to deport him
Debatabase debate: This House believes that sexual orientation should be considered grounds for asylum http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/peace-security-human-rights/house-believes-sexual-orientation-should-be-considered-grounds-asylum
45 weeks 3 days ago
I think katedebate is right here; if we are considering asylum to mean giving refuge for someone who is otherwise likely to be harmed then the reason for the harm really does not matter at all.
Asylum does not even have to mean that the person giving asylum has done nothing wrong - it was originally for criminals - so even if you consider being homosexual to be somehow wrong then that does not seem to be good reason not to consider it as at least potential grounds for asylum.
45 weeks 1 day ago
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The grounds for asylum really should be whether the person under consideration will be safe if deported and whether their cause for wanting asylum is legitimate. Sexual orientation in this regard should be little different from any other possible reason for discriminating against someone.
From your quote of the border agency “we do not remove individuals who have demonstrated a proven risk of persecution on grounds of sexual orientation" it sounds like the UK already accepts this.