paul canning's Podcast

Discussion by Tony Cox on 'Talk of the Nation' on 'Gays' Global Search For Acceptance'. With Gregory Branch, correspondent, GlobalPost.com, Andrew Meldrum, senior editor for Africa, GlobalPost.com and Rachel Tivens, executive director, Immigration Equality.

An illegal immigrant who’s been living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was arrested earlier this week in Arizona. Mohammad Abdollahi was protesting that state’s new law allowing police officers to arrest anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Now the 24-year-old faces deportation to his native Iran.

That’s an even bigger problem than you might assume, he says because he could be executed for being gay.

His case is not unique. A recent report in the Chicago Tribune suggested that the number of gay immigrants seeking asylum may be increasing.

Eric Berndt is the supervising attorney for the National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities. It’s part of the Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center. Berndt says most LGBT people don’t leave their home countries with the intention of seeking asylum in the U.S.

No-one in the UK is more marginalised than those asylum seekers who have not had their applications accepted but have not yet been asked to leave.This status might occur because their country of origin is too dangerous to return to and is a life in limbo that can last as long as eight years.

Failed asylum seekers have no rights to benefits, accommodation or work. They exist on the goodwill of others.

Collen thinks that his four years of asylum claims and appeals may be at an end, but is too frightened to return to Zimbabwe.

Thomas - from Eritrea - does not yet know if he can stay in the UK after originally claiming asylum seven years ago.

Jenny Cuffe investigates the impact of living in limbo on the lives of asylum seekers.

# Timothy Kalyegira, editor of the Uganda Record
# Muthoni Wanyeki, columnist for The East African, and executive of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission
# Kondwani Munthali, reporter at The Nation, and blogger.

http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/02/lesbian-asylum-seeker-amongst-yarls.html

Detainee Denise McNeil says she was also assaulted and racially abused by staff during the protest. McNeil, 35, who has two sons has been in Yarlswood for 11 months and began her hungerstrike last Thursday.

Prince Macdonald, in his own words, is gay, proud and African. He lives in the Ghanaian capital Accra and talks about how, despite homosexual acts being illegal in his country, he’s still determined to enjoy life as much as possible. Her real name is Mapaseka, but everyone calls her Steve. She was young when she came out to her family. It wasn’t easy, but they eventually accepted her. But when she was 15, She was raped by a family friend who believed she should be shown what it’s like to be a ‘real’ woman. Despite a constitution protecting gay and lesbians, she still feels unsafe.

Lorenzo is a hairdresser in Cameroon. He met a man in a bar and they clicked and they decided to live together. That’s when the police got involved. Lorenzo spent seven months in prison without trial. Ian Swartz founded the Rainbow Project in Namibia at a time when its president began to hound gays and lesbians. The home affairs minister called for their elimination and became known as the minister for homophobic affairs. Ian talks about the abuse he experienced and why it increased his determination to create change.

Africa is not a place to be out and proud right now. Homosexual acts are illegal in 37 countries on the continent and in recent years many African leaders have been increasing the anti-gay rhetoric. In Uganda a proposed law would make being gay punishable by life imprisonment. Jonathan is joined by Ian Swartz, founder of a gay rights organisation in Namibia, and Scott Long from Human Rights Watch in New York.

Interview with Stosh Mugisha, Ugandan LGBT rights activist

We've heard about horrific anti-gay violence in Jamaica, the Middle East and other parts of the world. Now hear how those who've fled their homelands fare as refugees, usually with no resources and in neighboring countries just as homophobic.

Longtime immigration lawyer Neil Grungras founded the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAMinternational.org) to help them out. He's Eric Jansen's expert guest on this episode of Out in the Bay.

BBC Radio Five documentary