Marios Kontos, ‘Asylum, sexuality and concealment: where are we a decade on from HJ (Iran)?’, Free Movement blog, 7 July 2020

Abstract

On 7 July 2010, the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in HJ (Iran) [2010] UKSC 31, in which it established how asylum applications are to be decided when applicants flee persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation. The ruling effectively ended the wrongful expectation that applicants remain in the closet if that was “reasonably tolerable” to them in order to avoid persecution on return to their home countries.