‘Gay’ asylum seeker rejected

AUSTRIA has rejected the asylum application of an Afghan claiming to be gay as he did not ‘walk or dress like a homosexual’.

An official in Lower Austria state found no grounds for fear of persecution based on the sexual orientation of the 18-year-old, the Falter newspaper reported.

‘The way you walk, act or dress does not show even in the slightest that you could be homosexual,’ the official reportedly wrote.

The official also found ‘potential for aggression’ which ‘wouldn’t be expected from a homosexual’, as the man fought in charity accommodation that housed him. The Afghan reportedly had few friends, leading the official to question in his report: ‘Aren’t homosexuals rather social?’

The official rejected the statement the Afghan had kissed straight men, saying he would have been beaten if he had done so.

The teenager said he became aware of his sexuality at 12 years old, but the official found that ‘rather early’ in a society with ‘no public sexual stimulation’.

The Afghan is appealing the decision, the Falter said. Austria’s interior ministry said that it could not comment on the specific case, but that it was ‘not reflective of the [wider] reality’.

Some 120,000 asylum claims have been decided on over the past two years, it added.

‘Asylum-seekers must substantiate their reasons for fleeing. There are no concrete rules of proof, but the authorities must show if and why a claim was found to have been substantiated,’ the ministry said in a statement.

It said the government was working on further training on LGBT issues.

Homosexuality is illegal in Afghanistan’s conservative, highly gendersegregated society.