Deported Gay Afghans Told to ‘Pretend to be straight’

Gay Afghans can be deported back to Afghanistan under new British government guidelines, where homosexuality is illegal and taboo and they must pretend to be straight. British media reported that the new guidance has been denounced by human rights groups as a violation of international law and criticised by the Home Office’s own Afghanistan unit. The Guardian reported that “The Home Office’s approach seems to be to tell asylum seekers, ‘Pretend you’re straight, move to Kabul and best of luck,’” said Heather Barr, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. He added that living a life where you are forced to lie every day about a key part of your identity, and live in constant fear of being found out and harassed is exactly the kind of persecution asylum laws are supposed to prevent. Paul Twocock, director of campaigns, policy and research at Stonewall said that this apparently puts the Home Office at odds with United Nations guidelines on refugees, which specify that LGBT people should not be required to change or conceal their identity to avoid persecution.