gayasylumuk wants more to sign petition to Gordon Brown

MEDIA RELEASE
15TH June

FOR IMMEDIATE USE

gayasylumuk wants more to sign petition to Gordon Brown

The campaigning group gayaylumuk today called on all those moved by the plight of the 19-yo Iranian Mehdi Kazemi to support other lesbian and gay asylum seekers at risk of return to torture and possible death.

The group is calling on all British people outraged by government policy to sign the petition to Gordon Brown (at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/).

This petition, established by Durham Methodist minister Walter Attwood, says: 'we the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop deporting gays and lesbians to countries where they may be imprisoned, tortured or executed because of their sexuality'.

The petition has almost 3000 signatures but needs many more to achieve significance in the Number Ten petitions system, established by Downing Street to affect and inform policy.

The group has also established an international petition to support Prossy Kakooza, a 26-year-old lesbian woman seeking asylum in the UK. She fled Uganda after suffering vicious sexual, physical and verbal attacks due to her sexual orientation. Her application has been refused with Prossy being told she can return and 'be discrete' when this is not an option in Uganda.

International petition for Prossy http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ProssyKakooza/

We are also highlighting the cases of:

* Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian threatened by the British government with deportation to torture and possible death by stoning.
* Gay Syrian refugee JoJo Jako Yakob, who fled his homeland two years ago after being arrested, shot and beaten.
* Babakhan 'Babi' Badalov, a target of repression and persecution as an openly gay radical artist and poet in Azerbaijan.

Their claims for asylum has all been dismissed.

Spokesperson Paul Canning said, "LGBT refugees fleeing torture and possible murder are routinely being refused asylum because of UK government policy. This is at the same time as British embassy's abroad are flying the rainbow flag — it's hypocritical."

"Many other countries, such as Holland, the United States and Sweden do not treat LGBT asylum seekers this way and the evidence shows that there is no 'flood' if you adopt humane policies. The government needs to change its shameful attitude and we are calling on British people to tell them it is, indeed, shaming."

gayasylumuk is a campaign group established by Omar Kuddas. It has supporters in the UK, USA, Europe and around the world.

Further information about Prossy, Pegah, JoJo and Babi can be found on 'LGBT asylum news (formally Save Mehdi Kazemi)', the campaign's website http://www.medhikazemi.com

Further information on Rev. Walter Attwood http://www.durhamdeernessmethodist.org.uk/ministers.shtml