Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 16:31:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Ron Buckmire Subject: /qrd/world/middle_east/iran Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 09:25:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Kenneth Sherrill Subject: SWEDEN: Iranian Gay Man Granted Residence Permit (fwd) In response to an action distributed in June 1996 concerning a gay Iranian asylumseeker in Sweden, I today received the following letter from Pierre Schori, minister for migration and asylum policy. (excerpt) "In response to your letter to Lena Hjelm-Wallén, minister for foreign affairs, I would like to inform you that the Swedsih government on May 28, 1998, granted the gay Iranian permanent residence permit. The man was considered having well-founded fear of persecution due to his homosexuality if he were to return to Iran. The permit was granted bye virtue of the Aliens Act (1989:529) Chapter 3, paragraph 3.3." Pierre Schori Minister for International Development, Migration and Asylum Policy According to the Swedish Aliens Act residence permit can be granted in Sweden on a number of different grounds. These are asylum according to the Geneva Convention, humanitarian reasons, family connection, or labour-market reasons. Homosexuals are mentioned explicitly in the Aliens Act, which regulates the Swedish refugee policy. However, not as refugees according to the Geneva Convention, but as a separate category among "other persons needing protection". The law text, which came into force 1 January 1997, refers to persons who "due to her/his sex or homosexuality experiences a well-founded fear of persecution". According to RFSL's asylum co-ordinator the authorities interpretation of the notion "experienced well-founded fear of persecution" is extremely restrictive. It is applied mainly in cases where the applicant can document court documents, which prove that the applicant is under legal investigation caused by her/his homosexuality. None of the cases known by RFSL have after the explicit inclusion of gay men and lesbians in the Swedish Refugee legislation (January 1, 1997), been granted residence permit solely due to "well-founded fear of persecution" caused by the applicants homosexuality. So far the Iranian who has now been granted residence permit, is the first known case. I enclose the text of the original action from 1996: BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Iranian citizen arrived in Sweden in October 1994 and applied for asylum in November the same year. His application was rejected by the Swedish Immigration Board (Invandrarverket) in May 1995 and by the Aliens Appeals Board on 11 March 1996. The Iranian has given following motivation for his asylum application: In November 1994 shortly after his arrival in Sweden he received a phone call from his parents in Iran. They had been visited by Iranian police, who had asked for him and searched his room. They found three prohibited movies. One showing two gay man joking about Khomeini and Islam. Further they found a collection of poems, some of them anti-Islam as well as a photo of the former Shah and his wife. The police also showed the parents a nude photo of their son and his ex-lover, and told them that they, if they found him, would execute their son as they had done with his lover. Neither the Swedish Immigration Board nor the Aliens Appeals Board questions that the Iranian man is gay, but they doubt the reliability of his statement. None of the authorities seems to have considered what could happen to him if he were forced to go back to Iran. Last November the Iranian citizen Mehdi Barazandeh was executed there for his homosexuality. The Aliens Appeals Board has in earlier similar cases decided to give gay Iranians asylum in Sweden. If the board's present decision is not changed it will imply a considered tightening of the policy regarding gay asylum seekers in Sweden. ********** To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@queernet.org; put a line saying unsubscribe kenslist in the body. (This may fail if your address has changed since you signed up; if so, or for other assistance, contact kenslist-approval@queernet.org.)