m******8
发帖数: 2153 | 1 U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services issued new guidance on Tuesday to
assist officers handling asylum and refugee claims from LGBT people seeking
to escape persecution by living in the United States.
The module, called “Guidance for Adjudicating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Refugee and Asylum Claims,” addresses
legal issues for weighing such cases, covers factors that must be considered
when interviewing LGBT applicants and details methods to assess credibility
of claims. The guidance doesn’t expand the statutory definition of a
refugee.
According to Immigration Equality, the guidance is the result of a two-year
collaborative process between the organization and USCIS. In a statement,
Victoria Nelson, Immigration’s Equality’s legal director, called the
module an “important step to better protect LGBTI asylum seekers.”
“This guidance will give officers the tools they need to gather the
necessary evidence for validating an asylum claim, while respecting the
often sensitive issues that potential asylees must navigate based on their
past persecution,” Nelson said.
Steve Ralls, a spokesperson for Immigration Equality, said his organization
has an open case load of LGBT asylum seekers that ranges from 150 to 200
cases each year. He estimated there are about 250 such cases of LGBT people
seeking to come to the United State to escape persecution each year.
Many of these people come from nearby countries, such as Jamaica. While
incidents of anti-gay harassment, even killings, are frequently reported in
the Middle East, Ralls said the distance between those countries and the
United States makes it difficult for LGBT people to seek asylum here......
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/01/26/u-s-issues-new-guidan |
|
