UK Home Office treatment of LGBT asylum seekers

The Home Office’s treatment of LGBT asylum seekers – Peter Tatchell

But, of course, my first observation is that the entire asylum system is rigged to fail as many people as possible. The government’s target is to reduce numbers regardless of the merits of the individual case so every refugee, no matter what horrors they’ve been through, is assumed to be a fraudster and a liar. Presumption of a person who is faking it, is at the core of the UK’s asylum system and the way in which all refuges are treated.

But, I’ve got to say that the treatment of LGBTI asylum seekers is much worse than most others. For example, on average, the refusal rate for a gay asylum seeker is much, much higher on a first application than for any other category. Much, much higher. And there is a culture of disbelief.

Now, in the past, what the government used to say was, oh, we accept that you were beaten up, that you were arrested, that you were put in prison but we don’t accept that this amounts to persecution within the framework of the Refugee Convention 1951. And then when they couldn’t get away that they said, well, we do accept you’ve been persecuted but we think that it will be safe to go back to your home country and behave with discretion, ie., go back, change your name, move to a part of the country where no one knows you and stop having gay sex, then no one will know you’re gay and you won’t be persecuted.

Thankfully, in 2010, the High Court ruled that was illegal so what the government is now doing is saying, we don’t believe you’re gay. We accept these things that happened to you but we

https://youtu.be/3vdRN3_OIaQ UK government abuse of LGBTI refugees fleeing persecution - 26 October 2014

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don’t believe you’re gay. So they will say that, you know, someone who has been through incredible persecution then it will be, it’s some other reason. They’ve been engaged in criminal acts. That’s the explanation. And so to prove one’s sexuality or gender identity has become a huge hurdle. How do you prove that you’re gay?

So I’ve just been dealing with a case of two Pakistani men who’ve lived in Britain, who have a civil partnership, who produced love letters, photographs of them together, photographs of them at gay clubs and bars and on gay protests. The Home Office says all this is a setup.

They’ve done all these things to pretend to be gay. So the solicitor said, well, how do they prove that they’re gay? If you say all this evidence counts for nothing, what do they have to do to prove they’re gay? The Home Office says, that’s your problem. So the Home Office won’t say what constitutes proof or evidence.

Now, some LGBTI refugees are so desperate that they’ve photographed and they even filmed them having sex with their partners. And these are often people who come from cultures where any display of affection is deeply frowned upon, let alone nakedness or sex but they’ve been driven to this in desperation by the Home Office.

And there was a case last year of one man who did this, actually filmed himself having sex with his partner and presented it to the court and the judge turned around and said, I see you’re having sex with your partner but I also note that when he’s penetrating you, you don’t have an erection therefore you can’t be gay. This is the depths of depravity to which the Home Office of this country is resorting. So it’s a really, really big issue and, you know, it’s an issue which Theresa May promised to address but has singularly failed to do so.

You know, all refugees for whatever reason if they’re genuine, they deserve a safe haven and many of them have much to give Britain. I can remember many years ago in 2004, 2005 a gay Iraqi doctor fled Iraq after threats and attempts to kill him. You know, they came to his house.

Islamists extremist militias, motivated by religious hatred and prejudice, came to his house and threw grenades in through the windows. Fortunately, he wasn’t there but they tracked down his partner, found him and murdered him in the street.

The doctor fled to his hospital and was hidden by nurses in the female nurses quarters when the Islamist militias came searching for him in the hospital. Then eventually, through various mechanisms, he was spirited out of Iraq and came to Britain. After a long, hard battle he did win asylum but only because he had the support of people like me and others. If he had been left to his own devices and his own solicitor he wouldn’t have succeeded. In the end he ended up going to Scotland and working in Scotland, working in Scotland at a hospital where they desperately needed his skills so he actually made a real contribution to the community.

I just want to just roll back slightly. When it comes to LGBTI asylum seekers like this man from Iraq, you know, they’ve been through so much, such incredible traumas and they come here seeking refuge, yet together with all other refugees, they face these incredible hurdles. The government has cut legal aid so much that it’s virtually impossible for any solicitor to prepare a proper asylum claim. And, of course, the reason why the government has cut the money is to increase the failure rate so it can send more refugees back to appease the Daily Mail and UKIP.

https://youtu.be/3vdRN3_OIaQ UK government abuse of LGBTI refugees fleeing persecution - 26 October 2014

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Also, many of the refugees are put in asylum detention centres which are prisons by another name. In fact, they have fewer rights in an asylum detention centre than a murderer or a rapist on remand.

They haven’t got the capacity to prepare their cases, they’ve got limited access to a solicitor, they’re often abused, sometimes by staff but more often by other inmates, beaten up, beaten up by other inmates because they’re lesbian or gay. And asylum staff too often just look the other way and say, you deal with it. So that’s another problem.

Plus many of them are put on a system called Fast Track which is whereby they’ve got an average of about two weeks or so to prepare their asylum case. Well, no one can prepare a proper asylum case and get all the evidence and documentation in two weeks. It’s impossible.

But Fast Track, again, is designed to fail as many as possible and even then, often the Home Office does the whole system, the application, the refusal and the appeal, within two to four weeks.

This is not justice. This is not fairness. This is a system of institutional bias, rigged to fail as many asylum seekers as possible and it’s unconscionable that a democratic nation like Britain which prides itself with respect for Human Rights, treats other genuine refugees in this way.

https://youtu.be/3vdRN3_OIaQ UK government abuse of LGBTI refugees fleeing persecution - 26 October 2014

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