Ali Humayun threatened with deportation

Issue 

Ali Humayun, a Pakistani gay asylum seeker who has in the Villawood immigration detention centre for more than two years, has been told he could be deported without warning.

"Immigration officials met with me in the morning on Monday [June] 18th and told me since I don't have any appeal before the department they are permitted to deport me", Humayun said. "They told me to be ready to leave at any time."

Humayun has a male partner, Julio Lorenzo, who is a former Villawood detainee. But, in rejecting Humayun's application for a protection visa last October, Refugee Review Tribunal member Giles Short said he believed Humayun's claim of having a serious homosexual relationship while in detention was "contrived". The RRT refused to allow Lorenzo to give testimony about his relationship with Humayun.

Humayun is the only openly gay detainee at Villawood — his partner having been granted permanent residency four months ago. "I'm worried for my life if I am deported home", he said. "The men in my family, they are really fundamentalist types. My lifestyle is totally in contrast to what they believe."

Pakistani civil law punishes gay sex with jail terms of between two years and life. Under sharia law, homosexuals can face 100 lashes or death by stoning.

In 2003, the High Court ruled that a Bangladeshi gay couple should not be deported as they would face persecution.

"It is clear that Ali has been cheated of justice", Shelly Dahl, co-convener of Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH), told Green Left Weekly. "The RRTs say Ali is not homosexual, while refusing to allow his boyfriend to testify otherwise. Then the government denies him a lawyer to appeal the RRT's unjust decision. They then threaten him with immediate deportation."

CAAH is attempting to get an appeal into court to stave off Humayan's deportation and is continuing the campaign have him freed.

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