Iranian Teen Fears Deportation Means Death

But Kazemi, terrified at the prospect of being handed over to Iranian authorities after his application for asylum was denied, fled the country.

(ABC News)

After a journey that sent him through the Czech Republic and Germany, he is now in The Netherlands, where he is being held in detention while a Dutch court decides whether the country is obliged to hand him back over to Britain under a treaty that says refugees can only request asylum in one European Union country.

Kazemi's uncle, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Saeed, for fear of endangering his family in Iran, described his nephew as a "very quiet and shy boy" and said he felt he had no choice but to run after his application for asylum was turned down."

He said, 'I told you uncle, I cannot trust the British government, they will send me back to Iran," Saeed told ABC News. "By going there I will be killed, and I just don't want to go."

Kazemi's case is one of two garnering international attention.

Pegah Emambakhsh, a 40-year-old lesbian woman who fled Iran for Britain in 2005 also faces deportation to Iran after being denied asylum. Emambakhsh's partner is currently awaiting execution by stoning in Iran.

Speaking to The Independent through an asylum representative Thursday, Emambakhsh said, "I will never, never go back. If I do I know I will die."

Homosexuality is a capital crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to one estimate by gay rights activists, more than 4,000 homosexual men and women have been executed in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

"They have no human rights, it's very dangerous," Arsham Parsi, 27, the executive director of the Iranian Queer Organization told ABC News.

Of Mehdi Kazemi's case in particular, Parsi said, "It's not humanity. How can they deport somebody back when he has a well-grounded fear of punishment?"

He added that even if Kazemi escapes the authorities when he returns to Iran, his family will likely reject him.

"Unfortunately, his parents, they don't care about him," said Parsi, who says he has been in close contact with Kazemi since 2005. "They don't like his son being a homosexual and his father said, 'I don't care about him,' or 'execute him,' or 'he's not my son.'"