Italy's supreme Court of Cassation
has ruled that the authorities must verify whether a gay asylum
seeker is adequately protected against discrimination in their
homeland before rejecting a request for refugee status.
Therefore, the fact that the home country does not have laws
that are discriminatory against gays is not sufficient reason to
deny the request.
The supreme court expressed this position as it upheld an
appeal by a gay man from Ivory Coast against the refusal of his
request by a committee in the southern city of Crotone.
The committee based its decision on the fact that unlike
other African States, homosexuality is not a crime in Ivory
Coast and the country was not in a state of armed conflict.
But the court said this is not enough and the authorities
also needed to verify whether the applicant came under threats
from private individuals.
This was because in this case the appellant could face
threats from members of his families.
Indeed, the man said his partner had been killed by his
father, a Muslim imam.
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