LONDON, February 18, 2008  –  Mehdi, the 19-years-old gay Iranian who fled the United Kingdom last year when the Home Office ordered his deportation to Iran, is expected to go on hunger strike in the Rotterdam detention centre where he is being held, his supporters in the UK said this afternoon.

Following the  loss of an appeal in a Netherlands court not to be returned to the UK, Mehdi was arrested on Tuesday of last week.

His uncle, who has lived and worked in the UK for more than 30 years, has been in regular telephone contact with him.  But now the only telephone calls Mehdi permitted is with his legal representative in Amsterdam.

“He told me he was to be deported on Tuesday February 26 on a flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow,” the uncle said.

“Mehdi told me he is going on hunger strike – he is very depressed and is on suicide watch.

“I am very worried,” he admitted.

Mehdi was in England for two years completing his education on a student visa.  While in this country he learned that his former boyfriend had been executed for being gay.  Before execution, he revealed Mehdi’s identity, it is thought under torture.

It was after he learned of the execution he decided to apply to the UK authorities for asylum, saying that his life would be in danger if he returned to Iran.

SEE ALSO

Christmas Gift from Netherlands for Gay Iranian – One Way Ticket to UK.  It was not the Christmas present that a young gay Iranian wanted.  A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Mehdi, the gay Iranian teenager, has to be returned to the United Kingdom, where he faces deportation back to Iran.  (UK Gay News, December 21, 2007)

Gay Iranian Teen Awaits Decision of Dutch Court Over Return to UK.  A young gay Iranian, who fled the United Kingdom in fear after his asylum application with the Home Office’s Border and Immigration Agency failed earlier this year, will be spending the festive season hoping that a Dutch court will allow him to stay in the Netherlands.  (UK Gay News, December 21, 2007)

They Hang Gay Teenagers, Don’t They?  A gay Iranian teenager whose asylum claim was denied in the UK fled to the Netherlands, and then to Germany. The Germans returned him to the Dutch, who are now threatening to return him to the Brits, who have already decided to return the gay teenager to Iran.  And you know what they do to gay teenagers in Iran, right? (Seattle Stranger - USA, December 20)

Young Gay Iranian Soon on His Way Back to UK?  Mehdi, the young gay Iranian who fled the United Kingdom in April, could be back in the country within weeks, his uncle revealed last night.  (UK Gay News, October 17, 2007)

Nineteen Year Old Says ‘I Am an Iranian Gay’.  The following email has been received by the IRanian Queer Organisation in Toronto from a young gay man who was studying at school in UK and, after difficulties with the UK Home Office over asylum managed to flee England, ending up in the Netherlands.  The letter is published here as written.  (UK Gay News, September 26, 2007)

Don’t Leave Iranian Gays Abandoned.  By Mehdi.   This article was written by a 19-years-old gay Iranian who tells how, while he was a student in London, his boyfriend back home was executed for being gay.  Mehdi says he was scared of returning home and meeting the same fate when his student visa expired last year – and of his asylum application to the Home Office.  (UK Gay News, April 18, 2007)

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Posted: 18 February 2008 at 17:30 (UK time)