Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 19:34:35 +0100 From: Mark Watson Subject: Lords wreck asylum bill STONEWALL PRESS RELEASE WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL 1996 LORDS BLOW HOLE IN ASYLUM BILL A House of Lords rebellion put a hole in the Immigration and asylum Bill last night. The Peers voted 143 to 124 to exempt torture victims and those who have fled from countries with a recent record of torture from the Bills white list provisions and fast track procedure for dealing with asylum applicants. Effectively this means that the white list (which includes India, Pakistan, Ghana, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Poland ) is useless if the applicants claim they have been tortured. In Romania it is reported that gay men are routinely tortured and in Pakistan gay men face flogging. The Government may face a difficult task in overturning the defeat when the Bill returns to the House of Commons as it only narrowly survived an earlier vote. Mark Watson, Chair of the Stonewall Immigration Group welcomed the result saying We have long opposed the white list and will be lobbying hard to defeat this bill when it returns to the House of Commons ENDS Notes: The white list countries are countries from where asylum claims will be presumed to be unfounded and applicants would only have 10 days to produce evidence to support their claim. The Stonewall Immigration Group oppose to the whole immigration bill but have highlighted the white list as particularly affecting lesbian and gay asylum seekers. The Stonewall Immigration Group marched with 1000s of other protesters at the weekend against the asylum and immigration bill. Mark Watson Stonewall 16 Clerkenwell Close London EC1R 0AA Tel. 0171 336 8860 Fax. 0171 336 8864 mark@stonewall.org.uk http://www.tyger.co.uk/sig/