Thank you very much, professor, for your testimony. We have approached this issue with grave concern, and it's a very critical one, because we're talking about life and death. We know that gays and lesbians are targeted not just in Uganda but in other countries throughout the world. Another country that very much has targeted gays and lesbians is Iran. In fact, we had a late show last night speaking on Iran, but we are concerned about the situation in Uganda presently and what we can do about it.
Not too long ago I just spoke in Parliament about David Kato, who was killed. Like other members of the LGBT community, he has always had a target stuck to his head because he was one of the ones listed in the Rolling Stone magazine, which is the magazine that has been calling for the killing of gays and lesbians in Uganda. They are constantly discriminated against, so I think we need innovative ways to approach the situation.
We know of individuals, who I have spoken with, who do know of people who want to leave the country. They've had their names, but they can't put them forward, and they won't leave unless they know they can get full assistance from the government in terms of processing their documentations. It's a big risk for these people to leave their country as well, to go to another country to seek refugee status in order to bring them here, and then not knowing what's going to happen once they get to Nairobi. They don't know whether the mission is going to process their documents or not. What they've been asking for is assistance, knowing that these people are targeted. We all know, and it's a known fact, that we're talking about life-and-death situations for these individuals, and we're trying to figure out if there is a way.
Now, there are different categories the government can use to put people through the refugee system, whether it's the country source or the asylum class. What is the best way in terms of getting this facilitated? Does it require a political will, along with the department as well, in moving forward on this? Does it require maybe having people on the ground in Nairobi who specifically can look at this issue? That might be another suggestion.
I'm looking for some concrete things that we may be able to, as a committee, put forward to the government, and even possibly write as well—and I might say that would require support of the committee—to the mission in Nairobi, asking them to take this matter very seriously and to do whatever they can to facilitate the speeding up of the process of the refugees so that they can come here.