Amnesty International calls for law reform after gay asylum seekers letters

THE Australian branch of global human rights group Amnesty International has expressed concern at the leaked letters from gay Iranian asylum seekers at Manus Island detention centre.

Earlier this week, The Guradian Australia obtained six letters from a number of gay Iranian asylum seekers which depicted suicidal thoughts, experiences of sexual assault and fear of persecution in Papua New Guinea, where Manus Island is located.

The gay asylum seekers are due to be resettled in PNG where homosexuality is illegal and can carry a jail term of over a decade.

The letters also explained their decision to flee a country where they were persecuted for their sexuality and described experiences of abuse and bullying on Manus Island and in their lives before arriving in Australia by boat.

Amnesty International Australia’s Senthorun Raj said the letters were “enormously troubling but not surprising”.

“It is brutally ironic to send people who seek refuge from homophobic persecution to a place criminalising homosexuality,” he told the Star Observer.

“The fundamental principle of the Refugee Convention is that refugees should not be sent to places where their life or liberty is threatened and yet our offshore detention policies are doing just that.”

Raj also criticised Immigration Minister Scott Morrison’s plans to introduce Temporary Protection Visas.

“[They] do not offer durable protection to refugees. They leave refugees in a precarious position by denying family reunions and requiring that they reapply for protection after an arbitrary time limit,” he said.

“Australia needs to abandon its punitive detention, deterrence, and temporary protection policies in order to provide safer, accessible, and durable forms of protection within the Asia Pacific region.

“This does not mean outsourcing our international obligations to third countries like Papua New Guinea or Cambodia.”