Uganda is not a very groovy place to be if one happens to prefer same-sex sex. Not only can one be imprisoned for life if one engages in ‘repeated acts of homosexuality’, the government keeps threatening to pass a Bill making such acts punishable by death.
And where legislation falters, the mob takes things into its own hands, and the prospect of
extreme violence is never far away.
How nice to hear, then, that good old Blighty is planning to deport a gay man back to Uganda because the judge refused to believe that he is gay (despite expert evidence to the contrary), and is adhering to the old guidance about which countries are safe (Uganda was only recently added to the list of unsafe countries for gay people, following an Amnesty report). You can read more here.
Well, on the bright side it looks as though the deportation order has been suspended for the time being, and hopefully the case will be revisited.
There was a recent UK case where a Ugandan asylum applicant woman withdrew her claim of being a lesbian, under circumstances that strongly suggested it had been a false ploy. Then, IIRC, she (or her lawyers) had the chutzpah to argue that she should be granted asylum anyway because, since she had now appeared in the press claiming to be lesbian in connection with her initial asylum application (even if falsely), she would henceforth be at risk of repression in Uganda.
Not to cast doubt on any other asylum-seeker’s claim to be gay, but it’s unfortunate that such instances of falsehood probably make it that much harder for legitimate asylum applications (including, possibly, the one written about in the opening post) to prevail.