Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP,

Home Secretary,

2 Marsham Street,

London, SW1P 4DF

Dear Mr Johnson

Re: Ali Hili, Home Office reference number S1180507/7

Your department through its Border Agency has decided not to give priority to the asylum
application of Iraqi LGBT leader Ali Hili, in exile in London. The application has been outstanding
for nearly three years and while it is outstanding, Ali cannot travel.

This decision directly impacts not just on Ali but on harshly persecuted Iraqi lesbians and gays
through the reduced ability of their sole visible leader to raise their profile internationally.

As you may be aware, numerous human rights organisations and journalists have documented the
pogrom against lesbians and gays in Iraq. Human Rights Watch has described a "campaign of
torture and murder". Iraqi LGBT estimates that over 700 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) have been assassinated over the past few years. The United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees has advised 'favourable consideration' for asylum claims because of the situation.

As the public leader of the only group representing LGBT people both inside Iraq and in the
diaspora, Hili has received a fatwa from inside Iraq as well as numerous threats in London which
have forced him to move. He is under the protection of the Metropolitan Police.

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin spoke last month of their
concerns for LGBT both in Iraq and as refugees, in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
co-signed by 64 other Congresspeople.

Hili has received many requests to speak internationally and spread the word which he has been
unable to pursue.

His solicitor, Barry O'Leary, wrote to the Border Agency in August 2009 that: "he desperately
wishes to do this [travel] in order to further the aims of his organisation, that is, supporting
lesbians and gay men in Iraq and bringing the world's attention to their plight."

Six months later, he got a reply saying that:

• the assistance given by Hilli to the Foreign Office "does not count"
• the fatwa does not mean that Hilli "falls within the classification of clear and immediate
vulnerability"
• that the delay in deciding Hilli's asylum case (since July 2007) "is not in itself an
exceptional circumstance"
• his case is not "compelling"
The UK Foreign Office Human Rights Report for 2009 specifically names Iraqi LGBT over other
NGOs as a key source of information. Hili has met with them numerous times. The report quotes
Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell condemning persecution of LGBT in Iraq.

Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant wrote in his blog on Feb. 24: "I know some people dismiss
LGBT rights as something of a sideshow in international relations, but I am proud to say that the
FCO has argued for a decade that human rights are a seamless garment."

Yet the same government through the Home Office is effectively aiding that persecution
through the failure of government recognition to Iraqi LGBT's leader.

I request that you intervene in Ali Hili's asylum claim so it is expedited and so he is properly able
to tell the world about what is happening to LGBT in Iraq.

Sincerely