The Eighth Section Chamber of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court has denied the asylum request of a 22-year-old who arrived in Lanzarote on a boat and claimed to have been persecuted in Morocco for being homosexual. The court points out that "at no time does he offer any data to support his sexual condition."
According to a ruling dated June 28, this young man was born in Sidi Ifni in 1999 and illegally entered Spain on June 1, arriving in Lanzarote on a boat. After that, his return to Morocco was agreed upon, and his internment and transfer to the CIE of Hoya Fría, in Tenerife, was agreed upon.
It was after being in Tenerife that he requested international protection, although at first he did not claim his homosexual status. It was in a second interview when he did, stating that he had engaged "in prostitution with men" in his country "due to economic hardships" and that this was "due to his homosexual condition, since he does not have sexual relations with women," showing his "fear" of being persecuted for his sexual orientation.
And, as noted in the ruling, homosexuality is penalized in Morocco and can carry "penalties ranging from six months to three years in prison and a fine of up to 1,000 dirhams (about 100 euros)". In this sense, it is also pointed out that according to the Attorney General's Report of 2018, "130 open cases were found without knowing their final outcome." However, through a resolution of the Director General of Interior Policy dated June 19, 2019, acting by delegation of the Minister of the Interior, it was agreed to deny asylum and subsidiary protection to this young man due to the "imprecisions" in his account.
Faced with this fact, this young man decided to appeal to the Justice, which has also dismissed his request since, although it points out that "the coherence" of his testimony "cannot be questioned by the simple fact that he did not claim his homosexual condition at first," it considers that he has constructed an "implausible" allegation.
"The appellant constantly and coherently affirms that he engages in male prostitution because of his poverty, but at no time does he offer any data to support his sexual condition. He does not provide any account of how he became aware of such condition, nor of relationships he had in the past," points out the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court, which points out that "in short, his testimony is based on the sole affirmation that such circumstance exists in him, giving greater prevalence to the need to prostitute himself than to his sexual condition."
Likewise, it points out that although the appellant states that he has been arrested three times for his sexual orientation, "at no time does he indicate what happened after the arrest, that is, whether a criminal process was followed against him and whether he was convicted."
Thus, the chamber concludes that "the investigative action of the Administration cannot be described as insufficient, nor the appellant's affirmation that he is the object of serious and systematic persecution within his family unit for his homosexual condition," and therefore dismisses the young man's appeal, also imposing the payment of costs, limiting them for all concepts to 1,500 euros. However, it is indicated that an appeal for cassation is possible against the ruling.
