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LGBTQI+ people and immigration detention – 5 things you should know

Last week it was revealed that the Home Office has refused thousands of asylum claims from LGBTQI+ people fleeing countries where consensual same-sex acts are criminalised.[1] This has led to widespread criticism that the government is letting down LGBTQI+ people who face persecution.

But the story doesn’t end there. Many people in such circumstances will end up in immigration detention in the UK. In detention centres we see LGBTQI+ people from all over the world – Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran to name just a few places. After fleeing oppression, they face bullying, abuse and even sexual assault right here in UK detention centres – with no legal limit on how long they can be held. They risk being sent back to countries where their lives are in danger.

#LendYourVoice to protect LGBTQI+ people fleeing persecution

Urgent LGBTQI+ people are locked up in UK detention centres, and exposed to abuse, bullying and harassment for indefinite periods of time.

Add your name to sound the alarm on the dangers faced by LGBTQI+ people in immigration detention.

Yes, add my name

One LGBTQI+ client we’ve worked with for almost a year in detention has never been able to speak openly about his sexuality.

One LGBTQI+ client we’ve worked with for almost a year in detention has never been able to speak openly about his sexuality. But he has shown us evidence that he was raped because of it in his country of origin and in the UK. The Home Office has refused his claims and it’s looking likely that he will be deported.

Detention Action and UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) have launched an urgent national campaign highlighting the dangers LGBTQI+ people face when they are held in indefinite immigration detention in the UK.

Here are 5 things you should know:

1. LGBTQI+ people fleeing violence and persecution seek protection in countries seen as ‘safe’, such as the UK. But last week, it was revealed that a ‘culture of disbelief’ persists – and that over 3,000 have been turned away. This means that many people who sought a safe and welcoming place in the UK face not being believed and being sent back to places where they are in serious danger.

2. We do not know how many LGBTQI+ people are held in UK immigration detention centres as there are no official statistics, but we see many and we know they are exceptionally vulnerable. We see people who have had horrific things done to them in their countries of origin. We see people detained for long periods of time. One of our clients came out as identifying as female while in detained, yet the Home Office continued to detain them in a male detention centre for several months. People are often terrified and take months to open up about their sexuality or gender identity.

3. Little exists in the way of basic safeguards for people in immigration detention in this country. LGBTQI+ people are being put into this unsafe place when there is no legal limit on how long they (or anyone else) can be kept there. This has led to widespread criticism of indefinite immigration detention, and urgent calls for a 28-day time limit.

4. Immigration detention can be a particularly dangerous place for LGBTQI+ people to be trapped with no idea of when they will be released. Many face confined conditions with people from the countries they have fled – who often share the very homophobic, biphobic and transphobic views they are trying to escape.

WATCH – @GracePetrie lending her voice to Achebe, a Nigerian asylum seeker.

5. LGBTQI+ people fleeing persecution face many specific difficulties – particularly when they are made to ‘prove’ they are LGBTQI+ from inside a detention centre. In a recent case, a man was told he did not have gay ‘demeanour’ and rejected, his appearance contrasted with that of a witness who ‘wore lipstick’.[2] One of the biggest problems is that people are simply not believed. When they raise a claim based on sexuality or gender identity while in detention, their chances decrease even further. Interviews have been likened to interrogations. After often years of hiding, people are expected to open up to the very people keeping them in a detention centre, where they are again having to hide from potential abuse.

“We know of people whom the Home Office has refused because they interpreted the person’s shame and embarrassment when they were in the interview room as lying.”
– Leila Zadeh, Executive Director of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group

#LendYourVoice to protect LGBTQI+ people fleeing persecution

Urgent LGBTQI+ people are locked up in UK detention centres, and exposed to abuse, bullying and harassment for indefinite periods of time.

Add your name to sound the alarm on the dangers faced by LGBTQI+ people in immigration detention.

Yes, add my name

NOTES

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/sep/02/home-office-refused-thousands-of-lgbt-asylum-claims-figures-reveal

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/21/judge-rejected-asylum-seeker-who-did-not-have-gay-demeanour