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Chinese Refugee Whose Wife was Forcibly Sterilized Granted Asylum in US

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal appeals court ruled unanimously Tuesday that the forcible sterilization of a Chinese woman is grounds for eligibility for her husband’s asylum in the US. The LA Times said the ruling could considerably increase the number of refugee claims from China.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, “Involuntary sterilization irrevocably strips persons of one of the important liberties we possess as humans: our reproductive freedom,” in his ruling. Reinhardt was one of a panel of three judges who reversed two lower court decisions denying asylum to Quili Qu, who filed a claim in 2001. “One who has suffered involuntary sterilization, either directly or because of the sterilization of a spouse, is entitled,” to refugee status in the US, he said.

Qu explained to the court that he and his wife, married in 1978, were denied a permit to have a child, because of their “adherence to Christian beliefs,” according to the ruling. Authorities eventually granted the couple a license to have a child; Qu and his wife had already had a child by that time, however, and hidden him in the country with her mother. When officials learned that Qu and his wife had already had a child – then five years old – they waited until Qu was at work, then forcibly restrained his wife, and had her sterilized.

The original ruling denying Qu asylum said that, because the sterilization had already occurred, there was no further fear of persecution. The 9th circuit court of appeals disagreed, arguing that forced sterilization is a “permanent and continuing act of persecution.”

US Congress passed a law in 1996 that allows up to 1,000 claims per year for Chinese who allege persecution under China’s coercive one-child policy.

Read LA Times coverage: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sterile9mar09,1,2357070.story?ctrack=1&c...

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