May 17, 2010
Austria Criticized for Forcibly Deporting Gay Nigerian Soccer Player
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
An openly gay Nigerian soccer player named Cletus B. was deported from Austria despite harsh laws in his home country that would subject him to the death penalty for his sexual orientation.
According to a May 11 report at LGBT Asylum News, Cletus B., 21, had arrived in Austria at the age of 15 from a village in Nigeria where Islamic Sharia law is in effect. Under Sharia law, gays can be stoned to death. Despite Cletus B. having told the Austrian government of his sexuality, and disclosing that "his whole village" knew of his homosexuality, the Austrian government deported him.
LGBT Asylum News' source in Vienna, Heinz Leitner, told the online news outlet that, "The Austrian coalition governments of the Social Democrats and the Christian party... were and are responsible for those horrible laws, concerning asylum seekers and foreign workforce in Austria," and opined that, "in their efforts to gain votes" the right-wing political parties had done "their utmost in outdoing the far extreme right." Added Leitner, "You get the impression the far right wing party and the tabloids are already members of the government."
Leitner continued, "The majority of the Austrian gay community also seems to be more interested in events and fun than in showing solidarity to our persecuted, and tortured, and executed friends."
"The social background is a far right political atmosphere in Austria concerning asylum matters," Irene Bricker, a columnist for Austrian newspaper Der Standard, told the site, adding that the political climate was particularly hostile toward "Black men, and especially Nigerians and people from other West African states." Bricker explained that due to drug dealing in the Nigerian community, "every Nigerian man is suspected by the police and other authorities to be a drug dealer: a very negative start for asylum applications--and an extreme example of ethnic profiling." In criticizing the police and the government for the arrests and deportations, Bricker accused authorities of having an "away with them at any cost" mentality.
The site reported that a massive police raid was staged on April 29 against a soccer team called "Football Club Without Papers." Sixteen people were arrested; two of them were kept in custody. One of them was Cletus B., who served as a trainer for the team.
The site also reported that the deportations happened with extreme speed--five days after the men were placed under arrest--and that requests made by the detainees to reapply for asylum were ignored.
In a May 9 column, Bricker asked whether the mens' legal matters had been properly handled, or whether their rights under the law were simply glossed over, and says that the legal representatives of the deported men accuse the police of operating among themselves according to a motto of "away with them at any cost." Bricker reported that one man was denied the use of a phone and told that prisoners were only allowed one call per week--a previously unknown rule--while the other man was not able to receive clothing and personal items brought by friends just before his deportation.
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Contact information
Austrian Consulate General
31 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
Telefon: 1 212 933 5140 Fax: 1 212 772 8926
Email: info(at)austria-ny.org
Austrian Embassy
3524 International Court Northwest
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 895-6700
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
