Home Office protest for Ugandan lesbian asylum seeker

Jul 10 2014
Written by Scott Roberts

A protest is due to take place outside the Home Office for a lesbian asylum seeker who is due to be deported to Uganda on Sunday.

Campaigners say Margret Nazziwa fled Uganda in 2012 after experiencing persecution because of her sexual orientation.

It’s claimed she was forced into a heterosexual marriage, was a victim of rape, and tortured by her community and the Ugandan authorities.

Ms Nazziwais, an LGBT activist, is currently being held at the Yarls Wood Detention Centre in Bedfordshire.

She is due to be deported to Uganda on Sunday 13 July at 8pm.

The African LGBTI Out & Proud Diamond Group has called for a protest to take place outside the Home Office in Westminster, central London, from 1pm on Friday 10 July.

It said: “Margret’s safety is paramount and she is highly needed in the gay rights movement. She has fought hard to defend the voiceless and now she needs us to defend her.”

The Home Office has come under renewed criticism over its policy on processing LGBT asylum claims.

Yesterday, the High Court ruled that fast track detention, a system used to process the vast majority of LGBT asylum cases, was “unlawful”.

Decisions to deport are often made before a claimant’s legal appeal has been fully exhausted.

Mr Justice Ouseley said the system carries an “unacceptably high risk of unfairness.”

On Thursday, the Home Office once again rejected claims of deporting LGBT asylum seekers.

Conservative minister Baroness Susan Williams recently admitted that the UK Government did not know how many asylum claims from Uganda were made on the basis of sexual orientation.

A review of UK LGBT asylum policy by Sir John Vine, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, will be published this month.