Wednesday April 9, 2003
AUSTRALIA DENIES 'REFUGEE' STATUS TO HOMOSEXUAL COUPLE
CANBERRA, April 9, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Australia's immigration system has rejected an application for asylum, or refugee status, based on the applicants' homosexuality. The same-sex couple, from Bangladesh, has appealed the tribunal ruling that said even if the two men could not live in an openly same-sex relationship in Bangladesh, they would have no problems if they were discreet about their homosexuality, CNSNews reports.
Australia's immigration ministry says the couple has no case under the U.N. Convention on Refugees, which requires a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."
The United States (under former Attorney-General Janet Reno) and Canada have accepted homosexuality as grounds for refugee status. While sexual orientation is not specifically listed in Canada's legislation, the category "membership in a particular social group" allows claims on grounds of sexual orientation -- beginning with the 1992 Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) ruling in the case of Jorge Inaudi, a homosexual from Argentina who persuaded the IRB that he had been beaten and raped by police.
For CNS News coverage:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200304\FOR20030409b.html
For Canadian policy on homosexual immigration:
GOV'T BILL GRANTS "FAMILY CLASS" TO IMMIGRATING HOMOSEXUAL COUPLES
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2001/feb/01022203.html
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