Gay Moroccan Migrant Seeks Asylum in Canary Islands, Citing Persecution

Ashim (a pseudonym) has requested political asylum because he is gay, a sexual orientation punishable in Morocco by three years in prison. What he fears is being the laughingstock of his fellow citizens and being attacked, as is the case of two gay men who were attacked by dozens of people in Fès in a video he shows with indignation, reports the newspaper El Diario.

Achim crossed the sea at the risk of his life, "sitting in the same position for three days and urinating in a bottle." "I would never do it again," he says. Arrived in the Canary Islands, he was transferred to the Migrant Detention Center, where he has bad memories. There, a lawyer explained to them the conditions to be met to obtain political asylum due to their sexual orientation. Achim did not dare to raise his hand, fearing the criticism and attacks of the Moroccans with whom he lived in the center.

Faced with obstacles in terms of legal assistance, Achim was helped by a neighbor from Gran Canaria. On March 8, they went very early to a police station in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where Ashim met a woman he considered "his sister" to whom he told his story in detail.