- Conference
- 2016 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 24 September 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes human rights abuse perpetrated within the country of origin of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who make asylum applications in the United Kingdom (UK). Many of these countries are Commonwealth members with strong historical links to the UK. If returned to their homeland, there would be a good chance these asylum seekers would be unable to live a fulfilled life and are likely to face the death penalty or life in prison. Yet still 98-99% of applications are declined and people are sent back to countries where they face persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. For example, homosexuality in one asylum seekers birthplace of Ghana is illegal, and LGBT people face widespread discrimination, police harassment and extortion attempts.
Conference notes that the Home Office issued a new Asylum Policy Instruction on sexual identity claims in February 2015, which was welcomed by the United Kingdom Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) as a “positive framework” in which such claims can be determined. However, the Home Office has not taken adequate steps to ensure its effective implementation, and it has still not reviewed the Asylum Policy Instruction on gender identity claims, issued in 2011.
Conference notes that many Black LGBT asylum seekers still face an unacceptable level of embarrassment and undignified harassment when they are asked to ‘prove’ their sexual orientation or gender identity to the Home Office. On some occasions this will be the first time they have spoken to someone in authority about their sexuality or gender identity. One woman was told that she could not belong to the social group called lesbians due to her having a child, therefore infringing her human right to have a family life. Other asylum seekers have been told to go back home and be “discreet”.
Hassan, a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Bangladesh, has witnessed first-hand the intrusive nature of questioning that some are subjected too. He fled his rural village after starting a relationship with another man, and now says he fears what would happen to him if he was to return home. “The Home Office don’t believe me. They asked me over 200 questions, personal questions. They asked me if I had sexual relations with my boyfriend. I was nervous but I answered them, but I’ve never been questioned like that in my life before. I was scared, I didn’t realise I would face a situation like that in my life.” Hassan says he even feared revealing his sexuality in front of his Bengali interpreter, in case the information was passed on to others in the Bangladeshi community.
Aderonke Apata faced a similar hurdle in proving her sexuality when interviewing officers discovered she had a husband in her native Nigeria. She now lives in Manchester and is awaiting a judicial review on her case – ten years after she first arrived in the UK. “My application was refused because I’ve had relationships with men in the past,” she said. “They didn’t believe I was a lesbian.” Recognition of LGBT asylum claims is typically reliant on human rights campaigners and solidarity from the LGBT community for access to legal advice and lawyers.
This conference condemns the harsh treatment that Black LGBT asylum seekers receive while in detention in places like Yarl’s Wood, such as being restrained, medicated, subjected to homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse and in some cases inappropriate sexual propositioning by guards. These practices are not in line with current equalities, mental health or human rights legislation in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, vulnerable Black LGBT people from some of the world’s most repressive countries are often locked up indefinitely, given scant time or resources to prepare their case, and ultimately threatened with deportation at short notice.
Conference notes that in July 2015 Home Secretary Theresa May suffered a major blow after agreeing to pay ‘substantive damages’ to asylum seekers unfairly locked up after arriving in Britain. The detained ‘fast track’ system was introduced in 2000 to speed up the deportation of people with ‘very weak or spurious claims’ to asylum in Britain.
It worked by accelerating legal hearings and appeals while keeping the individual seeking asylum in detention. Under the scheme, asylum seekers from a host of so-called ‘safe’ countries, including as Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, were automatically put on a special fast-track deportation route because their cases were considered ‘manifestly unfounded’. They were then transferred to one of the detention centres, and given only seven days to appeal before they were kicked out of the country.
The High Court said the fast track system ‘created an unacceptable risk of unfairness to vulnerable or potentially vulnerable individuals’. The declaration was the result of challenges brought by four asylum seekers held on the fast track system between December 2013 and January 2015. Two of the asylum seekers had been tortured in Cameroon because of their support for gay rights. Another had been forced to flee Egypt because of his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood while a fourth had been raped and tortured in Sri Lanka.
As it stands, the way in which the cases of LGBT asylum seekers are handled:
a)Severely restricts applications for those being unable to prove their sexual orientation, partly due to them not being able to be out in their country of origin;
b)Frequently ignores or rejects the self-described identity of transgender asylum seekers including in official documentation and asylum decisions;
c)Does not acknowledge people their human rights to have a family – the right to be respected;
d)Sees bisexuality as choosing not to be lesbian/gay full time;
e)Treats asylum seekers like criminals who are often detained indefinitely in detention centres;
f)Questions the credibility of Black LGBT asylum seekers based on stereotypes and misconceptions of sexual orientation and gender identity.
This Conference therefore calls on the National Black Members Committee to:
1)Continue to work with Labour Link and BAME Labour to campaign for the Labour Party to oppose these degrading practises, as promised in their recent LGBT manifesto
2)Encourage regions and branches to join ILGA (the International lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) and to promote their work for global LGBT equality
3)Work with our sister unions internationally to challenge these injustices
4)Encourage members to support the closure of Yarl’s Wood by signing up to the “Close Yarl’s Wood and end the detention of women who seek asylum” petition on Change.org, asking branch, regional Black members groups and community based organisations to promote the petition
5)Encourage regions and branches to support and promote the work of UKLGIG.