MCV [News South Wales, Australia], News
by Katrina Fox, 23/05/2007
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REFUGEE BODY TO IMPLEMENT SEXUALITY TRAINING
MCV [News South Wales, Australia], News by Katrina Fox, 23/05/2007 |
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The Federal Government's Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) has agreed to look at implementing sexuality and gender identity training for its members, after concerns were raised by Greens Senator Kerry Nettle about the RTF's lack of sensitivity in the area.
At the Senate Estimates Committee on Tuesday, Nettle raised the issue following newspaper reports about the case of refugee Ali Humayun. Humayun's application for asylum was rejected on the grounds that his relationship with another man in detention was a 'product of a situation where only same-sex partners are available or situational sexuality', indicating the RRT showed a lack of knowledge about sexual orientation issues. "I asked the RRT whether in the training they provide for members if there was a component of that which relates to sexuality, to which the answer was no," Nettle told MCV. |
"These people are making decisions about whether someone is a refugee or not and potentially that's a life and death decision. It's shocking. I went through that with them and said I thought they should have that training. The head of the RRT did agree that it was an area they should look at having some training to their members."
Nettle said she believed the commitment to such training was genuine. "They actually asked me if I could make some recommendations of who they should talk to... I don't they were fobbing me off. They said it hadn't been raised to date, which I was quite surprised about."
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