Gay refugee claimants seeking haven in Canada

The Globe and Mail ^ | April 24, 2004 | MARINA JIMENEZ

[victoryatallcosts]

Gay refugee claimants seeking haven in Canada

By MARINA JIMENEZ From Saturday's Globe and Mail

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Canada is seeing a surge in the number of refugee claimants who say they are homosexuals and will be persecuted if they are returned to their homelands.

In the past three years, nearly 2,500 people from 75 different countries have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation, according to information released under the Access to Information Act.

It is not known how many have been allowed to stay in Canada; the Immigration and Refugee Board does not track acceptance rates by case type.

The surge in applications is being driven both by bogus claims and a growing view of Canada as a haven for persecuted homosexuals, refugee experts say.

The largest number came from Mexico, with 602, and Costa Rica, with 276 — both democracies with thriving homosexual communities, annual Gay Pride Day parades and websites offering everything from gay weddings to gay tour operators.

Many claimants also come from Muslim countries, where homosexuality is outlawed, while a small number hail from Ireland, Britain, the United States and even the Netherlands, one of the few countries to legalize gay marriage.

Although claims on the basis of sexual orientation have been permitted since 1994 when the Supreme Court of Canada broadened the definition of social group to include homosexuals, immigration lawyers say they have seen a surge of cases of this nature in the past three years.

"People who come from relatively peaceful countries tend to grasp at straws in terms of advancing refugee claims," said Max Berger, a Toronto immigration lawyer who has represented dozens of Pakistani gay claims in the past year.

"With gay cases, it is harder to disprove. If you are making political or religious claims, you need corroborating documents from a mosque or political party. But with gay cases, they rely more on oral testimony. It is easier to advance a bogus case."

For a case to succeed, the person must first convince an IRB panel they are homosexual, and then prove they will face persecution in their homeland as a result.

Armando Ramos, spokesman for the Mexican consul in Toronto, says he has met many Mexican men who told him they lied about their sexual orientation to make refugee claims in Canada. "They are clearly taking advantage of the system, and giving Mexico a bad name," he said.

"I met with the Homosexual Latin American Association of Toronto and they are very upset about the poseurs and say immigration officials won't believe the real gays who need protection."

The IRB received so many cases from self-professed Costa Rican homosexuals, it issued jurisprudential guidelines last year, concluding that homosexuals do not face persecution in Costa Rica. The overall acceptance rate for Costa Rica's 1,833 claimants last year was just 2 per cent.

The country is now the fifth-largest refugee source country, behind Pakistan, with 4,257 claims in 2003; Mexico, with 2,560; Colombia with 2,131; and China with 1,840. The over all acceptance rate for Mexicans was 27 per cent.

Of the 602 Mexican claims made between January, 2000, and December, 2003, on the basis of sexual orientation, 71 were accepted, 67 were rejected, 415 await hearings and 50 were abandoned or withdrawn.

Michael Battista, a gay immigration lawyer, says many of the gay Mexicans he has represented are HIV-positive and have trouble getting jobs and medical care back home. "These cases tend to have a higher acceptance rate," he said.

El-Farouk Khaki, a Toronto immigration lawyer who also has a large gay Mexican clientele, says many have been granted asylum. A 2003 report by the Washington-based World Policy Institute notes that despite human-rights codes outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, abuse of gays by local officials does exist in some parts of Mexico.

Other countries with a high number of claims on the basis of sexual orientation include Pakistan, with 126 claims in the past three years, Nigeria with 152 and Hungary with 94. In Nigeria, homosexual acts are illegal and in Pakistan, those caught engaging in "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" may be stoned to death.

Mr. Berger says about half the gay Pakistani claimants he has represented in the past year have been successful. One recent client, Iftikhar Ahmad Shahbaz, fled Pakistan after a fundamental religious group called the Sipah-e-Sahaba beat him several times, destroyed his business and looted his cash box.

"I fear for my life in Pakistan where I cannot safely live as a homosexual male," said Mr. Shahbaz, 26, a shop owner who awaits a hearing.

Robert Moorhouse, who has represented more than 60 gay refugee claimants over the years, says the area is a very complex one. "I used to call it Gay 101. Immigration and Refugee Board members ask claimants what day the Gay Pride parade was on, where the gay bars in Toronto are located and whether they were in a relationship," Mr. Moorhouse said. "But what does that prove? Members have to have gaydar [gay radar], and rely on their gut instinct. But it is also a subjective area."

Mr. Ramos acknowledged that Latin machismo as well as the conservative influence of the Roman Catholic Church are still pervasive in Mexico, but said homosexuals are not systematically persecuted. The beach resort of Cancun offers an annual gay festival, while a host of guidebooks offer detailed listings of gay-friendly bars and baths.

Charles Hawkins, the IRB spokesman, notes that credibility is a key issue in refugee cases, and that IRB members do not prejudge claims based on country of origin or case type.

[victoryatallcosts]

Here's what's coming next, if the US doesn't manage to purge itself of this corruptive influence.

[Loyalist]

Immigration and Refugee Board members ask claimants what day the Gay Pride parade was on, where the gay bars in Toronto are located and whether they were in a relationship

Anyone can find the answers in five minutes on Google. The only test they can't beat is the broomstick test.

[proxy_user]

"Armando Ramos, spokesman for the Mexican consul in Toronto, says he has met many Mexican men who told him they lied about their sexual orientation to make refugee claims in Canada. "They are clearly taking advantage of the system, and giving Mexico a bad name," he said.

Yeah, phony homosexuals, that would do it.

Never mind all the other stuff that goes on in Mexico....

[risk]

Kandahar Taliban Canada: everyone is welcome!

[yankeedame]

Boy, o boy, o boy....if you thought Canadian health care was just ducky now wait till the "alternative life-stylers" start turning up at ERs and clinics....and as "More money of AIDS" lobbyists in Parliment.

"Look down - look down
That lonesome road
Before you travel on

Look up - look up
And seek your Maker
Before Gabriel blows his horn"

[montag813]

For a case to succeed, the person must first convince an IRB panel they are homosexual

How exactly do they do that? By singing "Easter Parade" in their best Judy Garland? Or just bending over?

[Clemenza]

concluding that homosexuals do not face persecution in Costa Rica.

Correct. Costa Rica has a large Gay scene, including Gay hotels and clubs. I have a friend who worked in the travel industry down there and told me that Gays typically congregated wherever there was a large contingent of foreign men.

Most Latin American countries (with the exception of Cuba) have visible gay communities, especially in the larger cities.

[FormerLib]

Any chance we can send all of ours up there?

[victoryatallcosts]

Only when I get down to you folks.

[Democratshavenobrains]

Hell, if I lived in Mexico, I'd lie about being gay too, just to get out of there.

[RichInOC]

"Oh, Ahhhhh'm a lumberjack and I'm okay,
"I sleep all night and I work all day."
"Heeeeee's a lumberjack and he's okay,
"He sleeps all night and he works all day."

[xm177e2]

The one on the right, that's not a turban, it's a halo! Who does it remind you of? I'm not sure, but I think it's Him.

[ionian]

They prove they are homos by answering to questions? This is pure nonsense. There is only one way to prove that. Applicants should do it, and do it well, in bed, while Canadian experts, possibly sexologists, watch and write a report. Then a committee of specialists will watch a video recording with the intercourse and decide whether the person is really a homo or pretends or managed to have an erection through pharmaceutical aids.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping + Is This What the Statue of Liberty is for Alert?

(Of course, that poem and about give me your downtrodden etc was written by an avowed communist, IIRC.)

I think the only way to stop the onslaught of the homosexual neo-terroristic takeover of society is for them to go back in the closet. See, folks, they don't want it to stop, until sodomy is performed in public, on the streets, in the schools, on the mags at the grocery store, and with your children. They want to eliminate the age of consent!

Is this the homo-erotic (and who knows what else) world you want for your children and grandchildren? These people are mentally ill, and combine that with intense anger and aggression, and the result is a culture war. It's not only homosexuals, it's a continuum, but the homosexual activists and extremists (and how many of their "community" protest against the extremists??) exemplify the spearhead, so to speak.

It's a war, and appeasement has gotten us to where we are today.

Let me know if anyone wants on/off this vital pinglist.

[scripter]

[homosexuals] are mentally ill.

That's what science tells us. The major factor in determining homosexuality is environment and more and more homosexuals are getting help and leaving the lifestyle.

It would be foolish to base rights on a behavior, and a behavior that can change.

[little jeremiah]

You are totally right! THat's why homosexuals and their supporters in the media and elsewhere hate it when their actualy BEHAVIOR is brought into the argument. They cling to the phony concepts of "community" and "identity", pretending that homosexuality is an innate condition like race or ethnicity that cannot change.

The terrible thing is that young people who experiment with or get seduced into same sex behavior then think they "are gay" and can never change. Their lives are ruined, and they have a high rate of depressiona and numerous other ills. THAT is a tragedy. And the media refuses to tell the truth, that people don't HAVE to be "gay".

[ionian]

The idea imposed to teens and children that homosexuality is a "sexual preference" or a "choice" just like when you like blonds, orientals, light built etc, and not a perversion drives many young people to homosexuality. It is a crime against society.
But, don't you think that sexual deprivation and the scientifically and practically unfounded theory than people can stay without sex for long periods, the so called abstention theory may drive people esp. teens to homosexuality?

[little jeremiah]

Nope. Human beings are more than animals. During mating season, animals in rut or heat have no choice but to find another animal to mate with. Humans have a modicum of will, and make choices about whether to use their sex organs or not. Obviously, chastity is harder for some than for others. There are methods which can make sexual abstinence easier or harder. Meditating on pornography (soft or hard) is a good way to make abstinence impossible!

Postponing marriage until the late 20's or 30's is not historically viable. One current problem is that marriage, chastity, faithfulness and loyalty are not promoted in society as admirable or the cultural standard. Sexual libertinism is touted as the "modern" and "enlightened" behavior model. If young people had a cultural standard of chastity until marriage and faithfulness during marriage that they were expected to live up to, a lot more of them would live up to it.

If instead they are told that it is perfectly normal and in fact inevitable that they should act like sluts or animals in heat, many will do just that.

[ionian]

1) Just because we support President Bush, it does not necessarily mean that we all agree in everything he says. There is democracy within neo-conservatism you know.
2) As you say, people do not make sex like animals. They make choices, the develop preferences, elegance and erotic culture, they can be in love before, or develop love after, having sex. I do not understand why they should wait until marriage to apply all these wonderful human values. On the other hand, there are married people who have sex without the above prerequisites, in fact just like sluts as you say.
3) If I understand well, you claim that abstinence is a good thing for else people will drive themselves to promiscuity. This is true for people without elegance and culture. But not all people are like that. We have then to develop erotic culture and elegance in school, family, society just like French for instance, try to do?
4) Or your analysis is not sociological and you simply claim that sex before the ceremony of marriage is immoral. Who says? Obviously this is an axiom based on some religious believes. US is a secular State. You cannot impose religious believes in a country where religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed.
5) I suppose Christian ideas are hidden behind your insistent position on that matter. Please note that many Christian denominations notably European Protestant and Orthodox Churches are not of the same opinion. Vatican would agree with you, but when it comes to the majority of practicing Catholics themselves, they do not believe and do not practice what the Pope says in most Catholic countries in Europe or Latin America. Furthermore, many Christian believers in the US would not agree with you. You cannot impose to the rest of the people, notably to the rest of the Christians, the doctrines of your denomination.
6) You are against "soft pornography" . I am not quite sure what this term means. Are you against nudity? An elegant nude photo is condemnable to you because it may stimulate and then stimulation may drive to promiscuity? So you are against erotic stimulation? But someone does not have to see nude photos to get stimulated. It happens all the time, especially in summer time, not only on the beach, but also in town. Boys and girls dress sexy and show the qualities of their body and face, this is part of western culture. If you are against stimulation why don't you adopt the Taliban system in which every and all parts of the body are covered?
Little Jeremiah, I am afraid you forget we live in the WEST not in an Islamic country, and WE ARE PROUD OF IT! And we want to keep it like this.