Dutch official to LGBT asylum-seekers — stay home in closet
The Dutch minister of immigration says LGBT people who are harassed in their home countries should pretend to be heterosexual rather than seek asylum in the Netherlands.
Radio Netherlands reports:
Immigration Minister Gerd Leers says homosexuals and lesbians who face problems in their own countries due to their sexual orientation should “hide their homosexuality.” The immigration chief was responding to appeals cases brought by three homosexuals attempting to claim asylum in the Netherlands.
The three, from Senegal, Uganda and Sierra Leone, faced serious problems in their own countries after they openly acknowledged their homosexuality. …
Leers called on the three to “be extremely circumspect in their behaviour.” In other words the minister was calling on three persecuted people to deny their sexuality and bury themselves in deep in the closet.
The Dutch high court does not share Leers’s position, so the issue will go to the European Court in Luxembourg.
Related articles
- Welcoming LGBT Refugees (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
- U.K. rejects Nigerian man’s asylum bid (76crimes.wordpress.com)
- Dutch fund supports endangered LBGT activists (76crimes.com)