The Australian newspaper has reported that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has been “overwhelmed” by refugees seeking protection visas to stay in Australia because of their sexuality.

The sudden influx of LGBTIQ people seeking protection has reportedly lead to a crack down on applications with a fear that many of the people applying may not actually be gay and may be trying to enter Australia dishonestly.

The report suggests that asylum seekers from a wide range of countries including Fiji, Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya, Bangladesh, Turkey, Mongolia and Nepal have applied to remain in Australia because of their sexuality.

People applying for protection based on their sexuality have reportedly resorted to producing receipts from sex shops, staged photographs and liked LGBTIQ+ Facebook pages to show that they are gay.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has told OUTinPerth that they are unable to ascertain if there has been an increase in the number of people falsely claiming to be gay in order to obtain protection visas in Australia.

A spokesperson for the department told OUTinPerth that they consider applications for protection visas due to the applicants potentially being in danger due to politicial opinions, race, religion, nationality or due to them being a member of a particular social group.

Applicants who are requesting asylum in Australia due to their sexuality are included in the ‘Particular Social Group’ category, but this group includes a range of applications, not just ones based on sexuality.

The spokesperson said that in any given year there are normally approximately 300 applications that fall into the ‘Particular Social Group’ category but their systems did not allow detailed reporting on specific grounds such as sexual orientation.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection was unable to tell OUTinPerth if there had been a recent increase in applications.

OIP Staff