Good news: stateless gay Armenian will be allowed entry back into US

Good news. Finally, after a year of being stuck in a real-life “The Terminal” status, stateless gay Armenian will be allowed entry back into US.  Thanks to UNHCR for following-up this case and assisting Mikhail. And thanks to Global Post for keeping us updated.

This case highlights the lack of legal provisions for stateless people in the US and the need to address this issue asap, and hopefully will help others to regain their human rights.

For more background info, read: CNN: Stateless gay Armenian man stuck in American Samoa in real life "The Terminal"

Updates via Global Post:

It’s been more than a year since Mikhail Sebastian became marooned on isolated American Samoa after a vacation gone wrong. Now the gay, stateless man, whose unprecedented situation baffled US immigration authorities and horrified migrant rights advocates, will finally be allowed back home to Los Angeles. Late last week, Sebastian was offered humanitarian parole by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a rare status that allows the 39-year-old back onto the mainland while officials figure out next steps in his strange case. His attorneys believe he could be in California by next week once logistical details are worked out.

Sebastian has been stuck on the Pacific US territory since late 2011, but gained worldwide attention after being profiled by GlobalPost last October. A collection of supporters ranging from university professors to immigration attorneys has since pressed officials to allow his return.

“It’s freedom finally,” Sebastian said by phone from American Samoa this week. “I have lived a nightmare here.”

For many in Washington, the coffee barista and former travel agent has become a potent symbol of the broken US immigration system and a voice for the serious problems facing America’s unknown thousands of stateless people — people with no citizenship whatsoever. Up to now, America’s stateless have been largely ignored by policymakers, despite the fact that they are never able to adjust their status under US immigration law and live their lives in a sort-of permanent legal limbo. “What Mikhail has been able to do was bring the issue of statelessness into the light and humanize it,” said Lindsay Jenkins, an assistant protection officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) US office, which has assisted Sebastian with his case. “This really took a village. It was a great example of how many people are supporting this effort to help the stateless.” [...]

Sebastian became a minor island celebrity of sorts, said La Poasa, a reporter with the island’s KHJ radio who has covered the case. “I think after our last story, people were like ‘oh my gosh, he’s still here,'” Poasa said. “People are sad to see him go, but are definitely happy at the same time. I know I had some drinks with my friends and we cheered for him.” [...]

Last year, UNHCR launched a campaign that advocates hope could prod Congress to include stateless people in much-discussed comprehensive immigration reform. They want stateless people to be given a path to legal status, or at least travel documents that would allow them to travel outside the United States. Previous attempts at legislative reform, however, have failed repeatedly.
That doesn’t discourage Sebastian who harbors dreams of one day being able to travel freely and gain some sort of legal status. He hopes his case and its successful resolution will have implications for other stateless people who live deep in the shadows of American society. “This isn’t just about me,” Sebastian said. “There are so many people unfairly suffering.”

CNN: Stateless gay Armenian man stuck in American Samoa in real life "The Terminal"

UPDATE 16 February 2013: Good news: stateless gay Armenian will be allowed entry back into US



*Via CNN and Huffington Post

In the movie "The Terminal," actor Tom Hanks plays a man who suddenly finds himself stateless when his country ceases to exist. New York’s JFK Airport becomes his only home.

That movie was loosely based on a true story, but for Mikhail Sebastian being stateless is a dilemma that is all too real. Sebastian is stateless.

He is an ethnic Armenian born in Azerbaijan in what was the Soviet Union. He was forced to flee when the Soviet bloc began to crumble in the 1990s. He tried to take refuge in Armenia but eventually wound up in the newly independent nation of Turkmenistan. But Sebastian is gay and homosexuality is illegal there. So once again, he had to search for a home.

He came to the United States and was allowed to stay as a “stateless person.” There was only one catch: Since he still held the passport from the Soviet Union, a place that no longer existed, he could not travel outside the United States – a tough reality for a man who loves to travel. So Sebastian set out from his home in Los Angeles to too many parts of the United States, including the American territories of Guam and Puerto Rico. Last December, he was allowed to fly to American Samoa – a U.S. territory in the South Pacific – for a brief vacation. But while Sebastian was there, he took a short side trip to Western Samoa, not realizing that it is a separate and independent nation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deemed that self-deportation and so for the past year, Sebastian's been trapped in limbo, unable to leave American Samoa and return to the United States.

Sebastian says his only wish this Christmas is to get back home to Los Angeles.
***
“It’s horrible here, it’s hot, it’s making me sick, I can’t stand it anymore” Sebastian is quoted as having told GlobalPost over Skype. “I just want to go home.”

Among Sebastian's advocates is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) office in the United States. "There’s a big gap in the legal structure of the United States when it comes to stateless people, and Mikhail has fallen right through it,” spokeswoman Charity Tooze told GlobalPost in October.

London Pride 2010: Gay Muslims, Immigration, Refugees, Asylum, Persecution

*For more pictures - see my Picasa Web Album

State homophobia in Georgia: The Bridge (short film)

Considering current troubling developments in Tbilisi, Georgia, this film seems even more relevant. Many thanks to Dear Kitty. Some blog for the link.



A gay couple from Tbilisi, Georgia (former USSR) escapes homophobia in their home country by immigrating to Australia. One has his application for permanent residency in Australia approved but their future together hangs in the balance awaiting the arrival of the second letter from immigration.

Director: George Barbakadze
Writers: George Barbakadze, Fleurtasha Cooper

Watch this film.

UK immigration minister gets a cream pie in the face

This came in response to his plans of more stringent population controls as announced in the national press. We also denounced his attempts to scapegoat immigrants for the ongoing economic and ecological crises.

I have to say - well deserved! :)

Rita Boyadjian's story: follow-up (Gay marriage: until deportation do us part?)

On 23rd July they will leave US. They are among tens of thousands of bi-national gay couples who are given no other choice but to leave the country to stay together or to split up. “I can’t believe that I’m gonna be a refugee of the United Sates of America”. She is a first generation US citizen of Armenian origin; a successful businesswomen (She paid $1 400 000 taxes to the federal government last year but apparently her “money is not green enough”.)

Outrageous and sad story... I thought that California's historic decision to legalise same-sex marriages will help in cases like her but apparently immigration related legal issues in the US are much more complex and tough, and inhuman... I posted about Rita Boyajian's case a year ago. Back then her partner was pregnant, and she was hesitating into moving to Canada, if necessary. Reuters carries a follow-up to her story a year on... Boyadjian spoke to Reuters [see video below] about her decision to move to Germany so the couple and their nine-month-old baby can stay together.

Reuters - Rita Boyadjian wishes she were in a better mood to celebrate the weddings of fellow gay friends after California began legally marrying same-sex couples last month.

But her partner of six years is a German woman whose U.S. student visa runs out soon. Even if they were to legally marry in California, Margot (not her real name) could not stay in the United States because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage for immigration purposes.

This month the well-to-do couple and their nine-month-old baby will move to Germany so they can stay together.

"It's a little bittersweet, I have to be honest," said Boyadjian, 38, a first-generation American who owns a Hollywood entertainment marketing company.

"I am very happy for my friends and I do know a lot of people who are getting married this summer ... but I am sad that while the celebrations are going on, I have to leave."

Gay rights activists estimate that 40,000 binational gay and lesbian couples in the United States are caught in the same legal limbo. A solution, they say, is years away.

When California's Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage in May, becoming the second state after Massachusetts to allow same-sex nuptials, Boyadjian said she was inundated with congratulatory calls from friends believing the couple's problems were solved.

But the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services confirms that nothing changes with the California court's ruling.

"The couples are married under state laws in California. The federal government does not recognize these marriages for immigration purposes," USCIS spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan told Reuters.

Binational couples could make matters worse if they wed since getting married signals intent to stay in the United States.

"We cannot get married in California without jeopardizing Margot's future visa applications," said Boyadjian.

Indeed, legal experts are telling these couples not to rush to the altar in California, which, unlike Massachusetts, will marry non-resident gays and lesbians.

[…] At least 19 nations worldwide provide some form of immigration benefits to the same-sex partners of citizens and permanent residents, while the U.S. still refuses. They include Canada as well as about a dozen European countries.



*source of photo - Reuters

United by Love, Divided by Law

US immigration law discriminates same sex couples: among others, a story of Armenian American Rita Boyadjian

Sebastian Cordoba’s documentary "Through Thick and Thin" received prestigious Freedom Award at last month’s Outfest Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. According to GayWired, "the film depicts the cruel and heartbreaking scenarios gay and lesbian Americans in love with a foreign partner must endure and struggle to overcome due to discriminatory US immigration laws."

Cordoba, who is originally from Argentina, has first-hand experience of this injustice. His own relationship with an American broke up in part because of constant stress over the uncertainty of his visa issues.



Unlike a heterosexual spouse, a gay U.S. citizen cannot sponsor his or her noncitizen partner for a green card

Teresa Watanabe from LA Times reports about this issue and brings about real life examples of broken hearts and struggle for happiness under the target of US discriminatory immigration rules. Among others, there is also a story of lesbian couple - a story of Armenian American Rita Boyadjian:

"Rita Boyadjian, a Los Angeles entertainment marketing executive, is also facing hard choices. Her partner, who is seven months pregnant and asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals by immigration officials, is studying to be a chef in Santa Monica. But her student visa expires next year; unless she can get a work visa after that, the pair will have to move.

Boyadjian said she researched, at considerable expense, different legal ways for her partner to stay in the United States. None panned out. An investor visa requires her partner to put up her own money, not Boyadjian's. An H1-B work visa is difficult to obtain. Boyadjian's partner has turned down offers by men to fake a marriage because they don't want to skirt the law.

The pair has reluctantly decided to relocate to Canada, if necessary, with Boyadjian commuting weekly between there and Los Angeles. But Boyadjian said she resented the specter of having to spend so much time away from her family, possibly missing her baby's first steps and words. It will be costly, too, to pay for weekly flights and maintain two households and offices, she said.

"I'm angry that I'm a U.S. citizen, born in L.A., and I may have to leave my own country as a refugee," Boyadjian said, adding that her parents emigrated from Egypt in 1969 to escape persecution as Armenian Christians. The whole thing has been a nightmare, quite honestly."

According to Human Rights Watch , only 19 countries currently recognise same-sex relationships for the purpose of immigration. The forms of recognition and its particulars vary. Here is the list of these countries:

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Iceland
Israel
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom

*source of picture: Out4Immigration