Why are the Home Office deporting LGBT activists?

Edson ‘Eddy’ Cosmas has lived and studied in London for several years.  As a child, he spent time in Manchester whilst his father studied there.  Eddy, a young, black, gay man from Tanzania, in east Africa, has built up a circle of friends and fellow students, and is determined to succeed in life.  He has strong political beliefs, and never misses an opportunity to speak out in support of gay rights, immigrant rights and anti-racism campaigns.

On Monday 9th May, Eddy went to the Home Office in Croydon to submit an initial claim for asylum, and to take a screening interview.  Long gone were the days of British immigration officials telling gay people seeking asylum to just ‘stay in the closet’, or to ‘act straight’; a ruling from the Supreme Court in July 2010 ordered that gay people could not be sent back to countries where they would face persecution for their sexuality.  With this in mind, Eddy was understandably shocked when, at the end of his interview, he was detained and put into the back of a van.

Only then was he told that he was being taken to Harmondsworth detention centre.  When I spoke to Edson in his cell at Harmondsworth on Thursday evening, via mobile phone, he sounds tired and frustrated, but determined to resist deportation.

“I’ve been here for ten days,” Eddy tells me.  “They call it a ‘detention centre’, but really it is like a jail.  We are locked up, and followed everywhere by security.”

The Supreme Court ruling was designed to end years of discriminatory, anti-gay immigration policies, but instead, it has had the opposite effect.  Openly gay activists such as Eddy, who should be automatically granted asylum under the landmark ruling, are being ‘fast-tracked’; held without their right to access to a lawyer of their choice, and scheduled for hastily-arranged hearings, and quick deportations.

“If I am sent back to Tanzania,” Eddy says on the phone, “I am facing being beaten, or death.  The immigration officials told me that they didn’t believe me; I said to them, I am the one that has lived in Tanzania, not you, so how can you tell me whether this is true or not?”

Another series of tactics being used by immigration officials to undermine the court ruling is to claim that the asylum applicant is lying about the fact that he/she is gay or lesbian, and that the applicant would not face persecution for their sexuality in their country of origin.  In Eddy’s case, he says that both excuses were tried.

When contacted by the Voice newspaper the UK Border Agency said that Cosmas had been put on the government’s fast-track programme; an accelerated checking procedure for asylum seekers’ applications introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2005.

“The UK Border Agency takes every application it receives seriously and each case is carefully considered on its individual merits,” a UKBA spokesperson said.

It is a wonder that Britain can continue to hold some kind of cultural or moral superiority on the issue of gay rights, whilst continuing to treat gay activists who seek asylum here in such an inhumane manner.  At a time when immigrant-bashing has become the dish of the day for government officials and BNP members alike, Eddy’s case provides a stark reality of what such policies entail.

When are we going to accept that Britain’s economy and culture have been built, for decade upon decade, on the backs of people coming here from other countries.  Will our government claim to support democracy activists rising up against dictatorships in Arab countries, but refuse to offer refuge to those seeking political asylum from sub-Saharan African countries?  The hypocrisy continues.

“We live in a world that is changing every day,” Eddy says to me on the phone.  “For those members of the public that think my case is of no concern to them, I would say; maybe it will be you suffering one day.  Everyone here has a different story, but they all fear returning to their countries.”

Eddy will file an appeal today, and have his case heard before a court next week.  He has been denied access to his lawyer for the week-end, leaving him just three days to prepare a potentially complex legal case.

As the government continues to pander to the far-right with racist, anti-gay immigration policies, people like Eddy suffer the consequences.  We must reject all attempts to divide our communities, and say with a united voice; “No human being is illegal!”

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