Czechs Under Fire For 'Arousal' Testing

[Gaylord]

The Czech government has come under fire for using controversial “sexual arousal” tests where male asylum seekers are shown pornography to check if they are homosexual.

The report, issued by the Agency for Fundamental Rights states that the Czech Republic employs phallometric testing - where men are shown both homosexual and heterosexual pornography while censors monitor the blood flow to the penis – to distinguish genuinely gay asylum seekers from those that might use claims of homosexuality, and subsequent persecution, back home in an fraudulent attempt to get into the country.

The Agency for Fundamental Rights also said that the test could fall foul of the European Charter of Human Rights, which prohibits degrading and humiliating treatment, adding that "this exam is particularly inappropriate for asylum seekers, given the fact that many of them might have suffered abuse due to their sexual orientation".

Vladimir Repka, a spokesman for the Czech interior ministry, defended the test explained that it was applied mainly to asylum seekers from countries "that severely punish homosexuality".

"These are people from areas where Islamic Sharia law is applied, or from countries which have a strong Islamic influence," he explained, citing Iran, Syria, Azerbaijan and Nigeria as examples.”


Is this good, bad or ugly?

GL