LONDON, March 19  –  The Government is coming under pressure from members of both houses of Parliament, mainly Liberal Democrats, to “come clean” about policies on who are deported to Iran – especially gay men and women.

At lunchtime today at Prime Minister’s Question in the House of Commons, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, raised the matter, complaining about refugees being deported to Iran.

Gordon Brown replied that while the government faced up to its human rights responsibilities it was important that the asylum system was being used fairly.

Yesterday, Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat) again raised the matter in the House of Lords.

What, Lord Roberts asked, was the Government’s policy on removals to Iran?

“We recognise that there are individuals from Iran who are able to demonstrate a need for international protection, and it is only right that we provide protection to those in genuine fear of persecution,” Lord West of Spithead, the parliamentary under-secretary at the Home Office, replied.

“However, enforcing the return of those who have no right to remain here is a key part of upholding a robust and fair asylum system.”

Lord Roberts didn’t know whether or not to thank Lord West for the reply.

“When people are forcibly removed from the UK, what mechanism is there to monitor the treatment they receive in their homeland,” he asked?  “How do we keep an eye on that?  And is it not time, in spite of the Minister’s answer, that we joined other countries in having a moratorium on forced return not only to Iran but to other places where folk are persecuted, tortured and possibly even executed?”

Lord West said that the Government is “not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran”.

“However, we have said in our most recent operational guidance note that if a claimant can demonstrate that their homosexual acts have brought them to the attention of the authorities to the extent that they will face a real risk of punishment that will be harsh and will amount to persecution, they should be granted refugee status as a member of a particular social group,” he continued.

“In addition, gay rights activists who have come to the attention of the authorities face a real risk of persecution, and they should be granted asylum as well.”

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale (Labour) asked the Minister to “confirm that there have been 57 critical reports in the United Nations about the repressive nature of the mullahs’ regime in Iran? The abuses of human rights include the amputation of limbs without anaesthetics, the gouging out of eyes, the hanging of convicted minors from the ends of cranes in public and the death penalty for those convicted of homosexuality. Will the Minister take the opportunity to speak to any one of 200 Members of your Lordships’ House who share my views on this vile regime if he needs any other evidence that it is unsafe to return asylum seekers to that regime?”

The Minister could not be drawn.  “We are not aware of any individual having been executed solely on the grounds of homosexuality in Iran, and we are not aware of any that we have returned having been executed,” he said.

Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat) then asked if the Minister was aware the Country of Origin Information Service report on Iran, published by the Home Office, “is deficient in many ways” and it “omits quite a few public domain references to the persecution of gays in Iran, including in particular the execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, a teenager who was executed for a homosexual offence allegedly committed when he was 13”.

“Will the noble Lord make sure that the Home Office Country of Origin Information Service updates its report and that, in particular, it looks at material in the public domain such as that which one can find on Wikipedia,” he asked?

Lord West said that the government would do so.

“It is worth repeating that we have concerns about the treatment of gays within Iran,” Lord West added.

“However, in the one case that we looked into, because it was shown on television, we found that two young males were hanged because they were found guilty of raping a 13 year-old boy.

“They were hanged for the offence of rape,”. He continued.  “Nevertheless, we certainly will look at the point that the noble Lord raises, as we need to do so.”

SEE ALSO

Asylum Seekers: Iran.  The official Hansard House of Lords transcript of the oral question asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on what was the UK Government's policy on removal to Iran of asylum seekers and the reply by The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office, Lord West of Spithead. 

Video of the question and follow-up questions is HERE (starts at about 23 minutes 52 seconds). Note this video is only available until April 15, 2008.