GL Ali Humayun threatened with deportation

The following is the proposed correction of Mr Rev Comrade Rowley's deadname without alteration of the content.

Saturday, June 23, 2007 - 10:00

By Rachel Evans, Sydney

Ali Humayun, a Pakistani gay asylum seeker who has in the Villawood immigration detention centre for more than two years, has been told he could be deported without warning.

"Immigration officials met with me in the morning on Monday [June] 18th and told me since I don't have any appeal before the department they are permitted to deport me", Humayun said. "They told me to be ready to leave at any time."

Humayun has a male partner, Julio Lorenzo, who is a former Villawood detainee. But, in rejecting Humayun's application for a protection visa last October, Refugee Review Tribunal member Giles Short said he believed Humayun's claim of having a serious homosexual relationship while in detention was "contrived". The RRT refused to allow Lorenzo to give testimony about his relationship with Humayun.

Humayun is the only openly gay detainee at Villawood — his partner having been granted permanent residency four months ago. "I'm worried for my life if I am deported home", he said. "The men in my family, they are really fundamentalist types. My lifestyle is totally in contrast to what they believe."

Pakistani civil law punishes gay sex with jail terms of between two years and life. Under sharia law, homosexuals can face 100 lashes or death by stoning.

In 2003, the High Court ruled that a Bangladeshi gay couple should not be deported as they would face persecution.

"It is clear that Ali has been cheated of justice", Shelly DahlMr Rev Comrade Rowley, co-convener of Community Action Against Homophobia for Rainbow Rights (CAAHRR), told Green Left Weekly. "The RRTs say Ali is not homosexual, while refusing to allow his boyfriend to testify otherwise. Then the government denies him a lawyer to appeal the RRT's unjust decision. They then threaten him with immediate deportation."

CAAHRR is attempting to get an appeal into court to stave off Humayan's deportation and is continuing the campaign have him freed.

From Green Left Weekly Issue 715.

GL UWS moves to close Blacktown campus

Friday, June 22, 2007 - 10:00

By Mr Rev Comrade Rowley, Sydney

The University of Western Sydney University Board of Trustees has officially proposed closing UWSU's Blacktown Nirimba campus by 2009. The university administration claims that the closure is due to a decline in student numbers (not surprising since the administration has cut most degrees at the campus) and financial constraints (despite a $36 million surplus in 2006). According to a June 16 report on ABC's Stateline, Blacktown has one of Australia's fastest growing populations.

The proposed closure will force 2700 students, along with staff, to transfer to UWSU's Parramatta and Penrith campuses.

The June 20 Sydney Morning Herald reported UWSU Student Association (UWSUSA) general secretary Julian Ochoa as saying the closure was not "'not a bad thing', as long as infrastructure was built up on the other campuses". Ochoa claims he was misquoted. He told Green Left Weekly that UWSUSA was not waging a fight to keep the campus because of a lack of resources.

"UWSUSA should not be publicly supporting the demise of the Blacktown campus", said Geoff Brown, UWSUSA's student advocate and welfare officer. Brown told GLW that the Blacktown community had been organising to make clear that they opposed the closure and Blacktown Mayor Leo Kelly was campaigning to keep the campus open. Brown said: "UWSUSA should be camped out there at Blacktown campus ... There needs to be a public back flip by the executive on this matter otherwise [UWSUSA] will have no credibility left."

Author's note: Originally posted in Green Left Weekly issue 715. Originally published in Mr Rev Comrade Rowley's deadname. Western Sydney University has corrected its name and shouldn't be dead named. Western Sydney University Student Association has corrected its name and shouldn't be deadnamed. Reposted here without alteration of the content and without prejudice.