The UK Home Office has refused over 3,000 asylum claims from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) nationals of countries where consensual same-sex acts are criminalised, according to latest figures published.
Data published by the Home Office and analysed by the Liberal Democrats highlights that approximately 1,200 LGBTQ+ individuals of Pakistani origin were refused asylum after making a claim for protection on grounds of sexual orientation between 2016 and 2018. A further 640 LGBTQ+ individuals of Bangladeshis descent and 389 Nigerians had their claims on same grounds refused during the period.
In Pakistan, “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” is punishable with life in prison, while Amnesty reports that “transgender people continued to suffer harassment and violent attacks” there. In Bangladesh, Amnesty reports that “LGBTI activists continued to be routinely harassed and subject to arbitrary detention by state and non-state actors”.
Applications for asylum on grounds of sexual orientation were also refused for nationals of Cameroon (136), Ghana (144), Iran (124) and Uganda (145). There were also refusals for nationals of Iraq, Jamaica and Malaysia.
In 2018 the Home Office refused 970 LGBTQ+ claims from nationals of countries where same-sex acts were criminalised, down from 1,096 in 2017 and 1,043 in 2016.
“This Conservative government is letting down every LGBT+ person and every individual in this country who cares about human rights. We should be leading the campaign across the world against homophobia and transphobia. Instead we have a government that is turning its back and looking the other way,” said Christine Jardine, the Lib Dems’ spokesperson for Home Affairs. This is in light of recent controversy wherein an immigration judge rejected the asylum claim of a man from a country where homosexuality is illegal in part because he did not have a gay “demeanour”.
