Gays, Christians Offered Asylum In Netherlands
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands — Iranian homosexuals will be granted special asylum rights in the Netherlands, the Dutch Immigration Ministry announced yesterday.The immigration minister, Rita Verdonk, also decided to extend a moratorium for Iranian Christian asylum seekers to remain in the Netherlands until May 2007 from this month.
Mrs. Verdonk based her decision on an unpublished report by Human Rights Watch, which referred to systematic abuse of homosexuals in Iran, her ministry said.
This year a group of Iranian homosexuals seeking asylum, who were due to be deported, became the focus of a debate amid reports that Iran may have executed men for being gay.
