A gay Syrian’s migrant asylum petition was rejected by Greece last Thursday, and he will be sent back to Turkey.
Sources told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the 46-year-old man had arrived on the Greek island of Lesvos after March 20, 2015 and is subject to the new EU deal where some asylum seekers can be sent back to Turkey if their applications are rejected.
The Athens News Agency (ANA) has reported that the man has already lived in Turkey for several years, where he was repetitively threatened because of his sexual orientation.
According to Fotini Barka from the NGO, Greek Council for Refugees, the application was rejected by Greek asylum services following a board of appeal ruling that it was safe to return the man to Turkey. It is not sure why the man was not granted asylum, however, Greece has claimed that the decision was not politically motivated and was made based on the facts of the individual case.
“We will begin proceedings to try to reverse this decision by the Greek court and get his removal suspended,” Barka told AFP.
It has been reported that all previous applicants under similar circumstances have had asylum granted to them mainly because of the social climate in turkey in regards to LGBTI.
In Turkey, the LGBTI community has no means of legal protection from hate crimes, whether they be verbal or physical. In fact, according to the NGO ILGA-Europe, Turkey is a very violent country when it comes to treatment of LGBTI.
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