With the general election on the horizon, it’s about time LGBTQ+ people seeking safety in the United Kingdom were heard and treated with kindness.
People like B, a gay man from Nigeria who was recently granted refugee status. In his own words: “I left my country because I couldn’t be who I am. I had a lot of challenges, I couldn’t walk freely, I couldn’t live the life that I wanted. They tried to harm me, they tried to kill me.”
B now considers the UK his newfound home.
“I’m happy to walk freely and see people like me, being happy, doing activities, happy to live a free life without fear,” he said. “Now I can live my life without fear anymore.”
However, just before getting his life back on track, B was threatened by this government with being sent to Rwanda. B didn’t even know where Rwanda was, and didn’t have any friends or contacts there who could help him.
Later he found out that “LGBTQ+ people were not wanted there either,” so he could face similar dangers to those he had fled.
Luckily, B’s lawyer got him out of that situation. Since the election announcement, the plans to send people seeking safety to Rwanda have temporarily stalled.
But this plan, together with other cruel laws and policies implemented in the last three years, could continue under the next government.
Laws like the Illegal Migration Act which, among other things, bars people from securing refugee status based solely on how they got here, locks them up in detention and allows the government to send people to Rwanda, or return others to countries that are dangerous for LGBTQ+ people.
Or the Nationality and Borders Act, which, among other factors, forces refugees to provide further evidence of the risk to their lives, making it even more difficult for LGBTQ+ people to prove their sexual orientation or gender identity to the government officials who will decide their fate.
We urgently need the next government to put an end to all of these inhumane laws and policies for good, and instead build a compassionate asylum system that allows LGBTQ+ people like B to rebuild their lives in safety.
Leila Zadeh is the Executive Director of Rainbow Migration, a charity supporting LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum. Click here to learn more about it.
