Call to protest Labour conference

The John Bosco Nyombi Anti Deportation Campaign has called for next weeks' Labour Party conference in Manchester to be used to put pressure on the government about LGBT asylum.

Campaign spokesperson Simon Magorian told PinkNews.co.uk that "maximum pressure should be brought to bear for a radical rethink on asylum policy."

Magorian added, following the refusal of asylum to Nyombi:

"The situation in Uganda has been deteriorating rapidly for the last two years."

"To expect people to remain obsessively secret about their sexuality is not reasonable but it does not even stand up on its own merits."

The government has argued to deported LGBT asylum seekers can be "discreet".

"This argument is palpably absurd," said Magorian.

"Now there are Ugandan newspapers like Red Pepper which print the names and addresses of gays and lesbians and demands action is taken against them."

"A protester at the recent conference on HIV was arrested and tortured by the police. The Prime Minister makes speeches demanding the campaign against homosexuals is stepped up."

"Ministers demand that they be subjected to life imprisonment, the maximum penalty under the Ugandan Penal code."

"The persecution of lesbians and gay men in Uganda is state led and executed by the forces of the state."

Magorian said that British government decisions are now predicated on refusing the maximum number of asylum applications.

He also drew attention to the case of Ugandan lesbian asylum seeker Prossy Kakooza.

"She was handed over to the police by her own family and was raped and tortured by the police," he said.

"British government officials have been refusing her asylum claim on the basis that they were 'the random action of individuals'."

"This would be a defensible argument if the men in question had been prosecuted by the authorities. They have not."

"I would like to urge everyone to write to their MPs and newspapers and raise it with their community groups.

"Please make representations to the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith."

Sources includes PinkNews.co.uk