A 25-year-old gay student from India who happens to be a Muslim had reportedly fled to Australia trying to escape a forced marriage arranged by his family. Now, he has reportedly been granted refugee status in the host country.
The commerce graduate, currently living with his boyfriend in New South Wales left for Australia on a student visa in March, 2009 for pursuing business management, but he had reportedly withdrew from the course in 6 months.
The student reportedly claimed that when he went home in Hyderabad in 2011, his father had locked him in a room and demanded to go for an arranged marriage with a woman even as his male cousins reportedly assaulted him, twisting his nose and holding knife against his throat to alter his sexual orientation.
He then reportedly managed to escape home with the help of a female friend, by hiding in her house until he took up a return ticket to Australia. Australia's Refugee Review Tribunal granted refugee status. The government accepted that the asylum-seeker was homosexual and finally ruled in January that in case he returns to Hyderabad, he will be assaulted and forced to marry and may also be killed.
