Freedom denied Asylum request rejected by INS despite history of persecution By Kim Krisberg. Photo by Philip Mark AP. For further news from the New York Blade click on www.nyblade.com Despite the highly publicized 'Cairo 52' case in Egypt, a gay Egyptian trying to seek U.S. asylum was recently rejected by the INS, which suggested that there was no persecution of gays in Egypt. Editor's note: This is the second in a series about "Waleed," a gay Egyptian man in his 20s living in Washington, D.C., who told on condition of anonymity his story of persecution at home and his attempt to remain in the United States. (First in the series: 'Why did God choose me?’) In his homeland of Egypt, "Waleed" described his life as "dreadful." He says the word over and over again, worried that Americans won’t understand the emotional trauma he experienced in a country that has publicly stated its disdain for gays and according to activists has sponsored a national crackdown on them. After being arrested for the crime of sitting in a parked car with another man, and after witnessing the show trial of the "Cairo 52," men sentenced to hard labor for attending a gay party in a Nile riverboat, Waleed fled to the United States. The native-born Egyptian arrived in this country on Sept. 21 with the specific purpose of applying for asylum on the basis of persecution based on sexual orientation. "If anyone were to be granted asylum, it should be from Egypt," he says. In 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno made it possible for gays to seek U.S. asylum by recognizing them as a "particular social group" persecuted in some countries. The U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees requires countries to grant asylum to anyone who faces government persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or "membership in a particular social group." Waleed and his immigration attorney, Elizabeth H. McGrail, didn’t think Waleed would have much trouble gaining asylum, considering the highly publicized anti-gay abuses happening in Egypt. "Egypt is the most compelling [case for asylum] insofar as in the state acting to get rid of homosexuality," McGrail said. McGrail has worked on a number of asylum cases based on sexual orientation and said none of the countries from which her clients sought refuge were as flagrant in their anti-gay abuses as Egypt. The Washington, D.C., immigration attorney has successfully represented gay asylum-seekers from Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran and El Salvador. As part of his application for asylum, Waleed was required to meet four standards: The applicant is gay, a characteristic that the home country has a record of persecuting in others; The home country is already aware, or could become aware, that the applicant is gay; The home country has the capability of persecuting the applicant; and The home country has the inclination to persecute the applicant. Waleed told authorities that he has already been arrested as a result of his homosexuality, so the Egyptian government is aware of him; that country's government has demonstrated its capability to pursue and persecute gays and publicly announced its inclination to rid the country of gays during the trial of the "Cairo 52." Waleed and his attorney arrived at his interview at the Asylum Office in Northern Virginia in late November. They had previously provided officials with the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service with evidence of anti-gay persecution, including dozens of newspaper clippings from papers around the world documenting Egypt’s anti-gay abuses. They both hoped that the asylum officer in charge of Waleed’s case had gone through the evidence thoroughly. Very quickly, they became convinced she had not. McGrail said the officer’s questions revealed she had little experience with asylum cases based on anti-gay persecution. She seemed surprised that Waleed didn’t tell his friends in Egypt he was gay, McGrail said. Several calls to William Logan, the supervisor of the Arlington Asylum Office, were not returned by Blade deadline. A few weeks after the interview, Waleed’s attorney received a "Notice of Intent to Deny" his asylum request from the Arlington Asylum Office. The interviewing officer did not believe Waleed was being persecuted for being gay. Among the reasons the officer gave was that Waleed had visited the United States on two previous occasions and had returned to Egypt from the two trips without being harmed. "You stated you never had problems when you were in school because you always kept your feeling under control," the INS officer wrote, arguing that he had been safe back home. "You stated you associated with guys and girls while you were in school and you had no problems." The officer concluded that Waleed had not proved there is an inclination on the part of the Egyptian government to harm him. The letter makes no mention of the highly publicized arrests of alleged homosexuals in Egypt. The Immigration & Naturalization Service offers applicants a chance to appeal a denial, and Waleed and his attorney both wrote letters of rebuttal to the denial. In his letter, Waleed wrote: "What more do I need to say or provide for you to understand my severe mental suffering, deep depression and fear of persecution because of my country’s increasingly repressive and abusively violent regime against gays and against those who are merely suspected of being gay? "All I am asking for is freedom; the basic dignity of being myself, for I am craving for a normal, productive life, the one any human deserves to have." McGrail’s letter addressed what she called the officer’s failure "to include any reference to the substantial documentary evidence of current conditions in Egypt" and urged th officer to "read the material submitted." The INS also ruled that Waleed’s arrest in 1997 amounted to prosecution, not persecution, because Waleed was arrested because Egyptian police thought he was breaking the law, meeting another man in public to engage in sex. Waleed’s attorney argued that the reasons given for the arrest were pretext for persecution on the basis of his homosexuality. McGrail explained Waleed's two roundtrips from Egypt to the United States by arguing that he "survived his return to Egypt only by hiding his sexual identity. "Country conditions that require an individual to renounce or hide an essential part of his identity constitute persecution," she wrote in the rebuttal letter. In late December, Waleed received a "Final Denial Request for Asylum," offering the same justifications and concluding that the Egyptian "government has no inclination to persecute you for any reason." McGrail said she was struck by how the INS mishandled Waleed's case. "This is the most egregious misapplication of asylum law," she said. The final denial cannot be appealed, but Waleed intends to re-file for asylum. He has met with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the group has decided to take his case and assign him a lawyer. The look on Waleed’s face as he talks about his asylum denial suggests continued disbelief. Every time he thinks about the freedom that he has in the United States, it seems, the thought is overshadowed with the looming threat of being returned to Egypt and a life of hiding and fear. "If they cared or understood to care," he said, "they wouldn’t do this to me." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Latest news 22 May 2012: Cairo psychiatrist claims he can "cure" 70 to 75 per cent of gay teenagers.