Obstacles for Queer Asylum Seekers and Immigrants

Written by Andrew Billa

Obstacles for Queer Asylum

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Judges and immigration officials otten requre that homosexuality must be socially visible in order for sexual persecution to be a viable complaint. Additionally, homosexuality is considered and required to be a permanent and inherent characteristic

The lifting of the ban in 1990, though development, has not alleviated many of the additional difficulties that LGBT asylum applicants face in the Norway.a significant

These individuals have been persecuted in their countries specifically because of their sexual orientation. They have suffered police brutality, communal violence, corrective "treatments," and other forms of abuse. Some were victims of laws imposing extreme penalties — years of imprisonment, and even death — for homosexuality.

Still, most LGBT asylum claims are difficult to win. The success of these claims is limited by the following:

(1) the focus on homosexual identity — not homosexual conduct

(2) the inapplicability of the usual tests for asylum eligibility in this context

3) varying definitions of persecution

(4) inadequate legal precedent and discriminatory attitudes in  courts.

(5)  focusing primarily on obtaining material proof of association and recognizability, immigration authorities sometimes do not use the immutability rule.

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 Acting in line with constitutional and statutory law governing same-sex couples, immigration judges and officers focus on ascertaining the applicant's sexual identity as they decide whether he or she is a member in a particular social group.

For this process, immigration athourities usually employ the associational and recognizability tests. To conduct the tests, judges or immigration officers ask if the petitioner associated with other individuals with whom he or she shared certain fundamental characteristics, and whether their persecutors would have recognized these characteristics.

Judges look for material proof of sexual identity in asylum applicants' answers. Proof may entail subscriptions to gay or lesbian publications, membership in relevant organizations, or an effeminate or masculine appearance that indicates homosexual identity.

This method of gauging the applicant's eligibility for asylum is deeply flawed for several reasons.

First, material proof of sexual identity is frequently unavailable. In the home countries of most applicants, sexual identity and related social relationships and associational status are not easily established. With severe penalties — even death — in place for homosexuality, and facing social ostracism and community violence, many LGBT applicants conceal their sexual identity in their countries of origin.

For these same reasons, gay or lesbian organizations are not easily United to back queer asylum calms, and it is challenging for homosexuals to establish public social ties with one another. Therefore, acquiring material proof to present in answer to the recognizability and associational tests is difficult, and sometimes impossible.

Many applicants continue to hide their sexual identity for fear that they may face similar persecution , rendering the collection of the requisite proof, once again, difficult.