text size

Immigration & Asylum

Overview

Consensual acts between same-sex adults are criminalised in 80 member states of the United Nations and homosexuality results in the death penalty in six of these countries. In many countries lesbian, gay and bisexual people face execution, torture, rape and murder from people in their own community or from their government.

People who face the threat of this type of persecution can seek sanctuary in the UK but many are not granted protection because of fundamental errors of judgement and presumptions made by UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff and judges about sexual orientation.

If you are looking for information on the immigration and asylum process in relation to same-sex couples or advice on seeking asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation please visit our information pages.

What we know

Stonewall has published the report No going back: Lesbian and gay people and the asylum system (2010), which is based on interviews with asylum-seekers and UK Border Agency decision-makers. It found almost systemic homophobia in our asylum system resulting in legitimate lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum seekers regularly being refused sanctuary.

The report revealed that officials rely on inaccurate information and outdated ideas about gay people and admit that they don’t know how to question them appropriately. As a result lesbians and gay men who’ve been raped, tortured and threatened with death are being returned to their countries – in many cases to face further persecution.
The report details how lesbian, gay and bisexual people seeking asylum experience significant and specific disadvantages as a direct consequence of their sexual orientation. In summary:

Lesbian and gay asylum-seekers feel a deep sense of shame and stigma about being gay and have rarely, if ever, spoken openly about it for fear of persecution. They also have a profound fear of authority figures because of the persecution they face in their home countries.
UKBA staff are trained to look for inconsistencies in the stories of claimants. This approach disproportionately affects lesbian and gay people who struggle to talk about the persecution that they see as being ‘caused’ by their sexual orientation. The trauma they’ve experienced affects the way they remember and recount details of what has happened to them.
The UKBA penalises gay people if they are not immediately open about their sexual orientation. If a case reaches the appeal court, judges are also reluctant to accept that individuals have found it difficult to disclose at the first opportunity why they are seeking asylum.
UKBA staff and judges often assume that a person can only be lesbian or gay if they have engaged consistently and exclusively in same-sex sexual activity. Questions focus on sexual activity and asylum-seekers are expected to share explicit sexual experiences.
Officials ignore the fact that many lesbian and gay people are persecuted because they are perceived to be ‘different’, not because they have engaged openly in explicit homosexual activity. They lack confidence and knowledge on issues relating to sexual orientation and so fail to enable lesbian and gay people to talk about their experiences.
UKBA staff and judges often conclude that gay people can return to their home country and no longer be at risk if they are ‘discreet’ about their sexual activity or identity. This approach has been condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Gay applicants are often refused asylum because UKBA policy and guidance and case law are incorrectly applied. This leads to legitimate applications failing.
UKBA staff rely on guidance and reports which are factually incorrect. A lack of information about what it is like to be gay in some countries is erroneously taken as evidence that gay people do not face persecution in those countries.
UKBA staff do not have access to information on the experiences of lesbians. Issues concerning forced marriage, honour killings and marital rape are not acknowledged to be relevant to lesbians.
Many lesbian and gay asylum-seekers are ‘fast-tracked’, meaning that they are detained and their case determined quickly. Often they are incarcerated in hostile and homophobic environments, significantly increasing the barriers they already face in talking about their experiences.
UKBA staff are under great pressure to meet demanding targets and heavy caseloads and this disproportionately impacts on complex gay cases. Shorter timescales for a case make it less likely that gay people will be able to talk openly, leading to incorrect decisions being made.

What we have done

A large proportion of the enquiries we receive through our information service relate to immigration and asylum. Through this service we are able provide information and put people in touch with the relevant support agencies that can help them.

Stonewall has also made strategic interventions in individual cases – corresponding with government ministers in order to highlight an individual’s situation and call for action to address the situation.

What we are currently doing

Stonewall continue to lobby on the issues highlighted in No going back: Lesbian and gay people and the asylum system (2010), raising the issue with ministers, the Home Office and the UK Border Agency to ensure that the institutional homophobia and fundamental failings highlighted by the report are urgently rectified to end this profound injustice.

Stonewall has developed a series of straightforward recommendations which we are urging UKBA and judges to implement.

These include developing robust policy, guidance and training of all UKBA decision-makers to ensure legitimate lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum seekers are questioned effectively and given fairer case hearings. Home Office Country of Origin Information Services should be improved to reflect up-to-date, accurate information on the scale and nature of anti-gay persecution in many countries. Stonewall also recommends that all judges should receive comprehensive training on the unique issues in sexual-orientation based claims.

We will continue to work with government and with the relevant agencies to ensure that these recommendations are implemented.

LGBT Asylum Seekers inthe UK

Here in Bristol the LGBT community is mobilising to support a young gay man seeking asylum and detained only last Thursday by the UK Border Agency, who fast-tracked him to a removal centre within 24 hours of detention. He is threatened with deportation back to his Country, which is in the process of voting on legislation that would impose heavy prison sentences and possibly the death penalty for homosexuals and imprison anyone aiding or failing to inform on them, even their own families This young man - whose identity and details are confidential, to safeguard his safety - had already undergone a horrific ordeal that almost cost him his life; he was stabbed, beaten, blind in one eye, suffered a dislocated shoulder and a partially detached toe, in a prolonged, horrifically brutal attack at the hands of a gang of homophobes. The 8 or more men tortured him, trying to extract the whereabouts of his partner and left him for dead in the street. We urge UK LGBT people to ask the new Government to: 1) immediately release emergency funding for the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, who almost alone in Britain are in a position to help evaluate the legitimacy of an LGBT Asylum application, after years of working and building unique expertise in this field 2) immediately impose a moratorium on LGBT deportation, discontinuing the routine placement of LGBT Asylum application cases in fast-track and, instead, refer them to UKLGIG for evaluation - a process that can take months or even years, owing to the difficulty of "verifying sexual orientation" for people who come from cultures where being known to be LGBT amounts to a death sentence. 3) review the practice of forcible deportation of LGBT people with the risible advice to "be discreet", and instead define incontrovertibly the list of Nations to which repatriation is proscribed 4) clarify as a matter of urgency the exact requirement of 'corroborating evidence' on sexual orientation, instructing legal representatives, community and advice agencies and refugee organisations about their scope and rigour for each.

Gea Vox, 24 May 2010

Comment on this page

E-newsletter signup

Info bank

Donate

Make a donation to Stonewall

Work for Stonewall
Charity number 1101255
VAT reg no. 862906405

Website design agency services by dotAgency