Eddy Cosmas freed from detention after one last (?) humiliation

Eddy on his release from Harmondsworth

By Paul Canning

Following a hearing today before an British immigration judge, Tanzanian gay asylum seeker Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas was released from Harmondsworth Removal Centre at 5pm and was also removed from the 'detained fast track' process.

Eddy has won a new hearing for his case after 5 September.

The judge's decision has not been written but a witness at the court hearing said that it was on the basis that previous immigration judiciary decisions could be regarded as possibly 'unsafe' and that more time was needed for both a psychiatrist's report as well as for an expert witness of the situation of LGBT in Tanzania to be found.

The witness said that a Home Office lawyer had immediately agreed that there could be 'an error in law' in how Eddy's case had been handled. In removing Eddy from 'detained fast track', the judge said that it would not be "fair" for him to remain in it.

The witness, a long term supporter of Eddy, said that without the support of herself and others "Eddy would have given up". She also noted that Eddy remained intensely concerned for other gay asylum seekers whom he had met in the detention centre.

In a statement released tonight, Donna Stern, BAMN [By Any Means Necessary, aka the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary] National Coordinator, claimed that:

"In part Eddy won this because he was organizing so much inside the detention facility that the authorities wanted him out of there!"

He has been the subject of a major campaign, initially by the group Movement for Justice, part of BAMN, of which he is a member, and later joined by the international LGBT campaigning group allout.org who secured over 7000 petitions to the British Home Secretary Theresa May.

We have followed the case closely and analysed the UK Border Agency's decisions as well as those of immigration judges in a series of posts, see:

• How one gay Tanzanian's asylum rejection shows the UK system's unfairness 
• Gay Tanzanian activist meets British asylum system: Is losing 
• No problems for LGBT in Tanzania according to UK immigration judge

Eddy reports that before today's hearing he was put through a (hopefully) final humiliation in detention

On Saturday (2 July) morning a guard came to his room and told him he was going to be transferred, but he wasn't told where to.

Last night guards came and told Eddy he had a legal meeting. This was not true, but not knowing Eddy went with them. Then in a corridor he was told he had to be transferred. He protested that he had a hearing the next day. They brought in about 10 guards (Eddy says managers were there too), to force him into a van which drove over to Colnbrook removal centre, which is literally next door, both being adjacent to Heathrow Airport. There he was kept without access to a phone, in a waiting area which had no bed, until 5am this morning.

He says he got no sleep, had no access to call anyone, nor to any of his papers or possessions. At 5am he was taken back over to Harmondsworth and then to today's hearing before a judge, who was informed of what had happened and that this would effect Eddy's ability to testify on his own behalf.

Major campaign launched for LGBT asylum seekers in UK, call for their removal from 'fast track' to removal

Eddy Cosmas (centre) at NUS LGBT conference

By Paul Canning

Two major progressive campaigning groups have jointly launched a campaign on the treatment of LGBT asylum seekers by the UK.

The campaign by the US-based international group allout.org and the British group 38 Degrees calls for the release of Tanzanian gay asylum seeker Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas and the removal of all sexuality based asylum claims from the 'fast track' system.

• allout.org campaign
• 38 Degrees campaign

The group Movement for Justice, of which Eddy is a member, have been campaigning for him for several weeks.

As we have been documenting, Eddy has been told by an immigration judge that there is no risk for gay men in Tanzania.

Eddy told allout.org by phone from the Harmondsworth detention centre:

"Of course I’m in danger there in my country, They know who I am. They’ll arrest me when I get back there."

'Detained fast track' was introduced over a decade ago to deal with rocketing asylum claims and a large backlog of cases. It is all about removing people as quickly as possible because they're supposed to have no real claim - but we already know that the vast majority of sexuality-based claims are being rejected when first examined, meaning that probably most of them end up in 'fast track'.

In their May report 'Fast track to despair', reproduced below, Detention Action said:

"Our research suggests that the Detained Fast Track system is structured to the maximum disadvantage of asylum-seekers at every stage. Conditions and timescales operate to make it impossible for many asylum-seekers to understand or actively engage with the asylum process. Yet this system is entirely unnecessary, as the circumstances it was designed to address no longer exist."'

Fast track' leads to LGBT who may have been tortured and abused being automatically detained, often with fellow countrymen or women who continue that abuse. Yet earlier this year the government rejected a request that because their claims are always complex they, as a group, should be excluded from 'fast track'.

Because of a shortage of lawyers experienced with LGBT cases, charities like UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) who are stretched and because of the pressure of time in 'fast tracked’ cases, the sort of complex work which needs to be done to present - and win - a case very often simply does not happen.

Eddy Cosmas is 'lucky' because his case has drawn attention. There are many other LGBT asylum seekers whose cases are not known and face being removed - breaking the government's promise - to danger. This has already happened with those from dangerous countries like Uganda, Nigeria and Jamaica.

UKLGIG in their landmark report last year described the Home Office as "cruel and discriminatory." Stonewall's report last year had 21 recommendations for changes to make the system fair for LGBT - only three have been addressed.

Removing LGBT asylum cases from ‘fast track’ would be a real step towards meeting that government promise.

Fast Track to Despair

Related articles

• How one gay Tanzanian's asylum rejection shows the UK system's unfairness (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Has the UK government met its promise on LGBT asylum? We don't know (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Scotland, major new LGBT asylum report (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

No problems for LGBT in Tanzania according to UK immigration judge

Update: 13 July: Eddy has permission to appeal. Judge Gill says it is "arguable" that prior judge had failed to properly consider evidence that (quote) "he is a gay".

The case of Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas, a gay Tanzanian asylum seeker has now gone from a UKBA decision:

'Stamp. Not gay. Fast track.' 

To an immigration judge decision:

'Call yourself a gay activist? You're rubbish at it. Stamp. Reject.'

To the latest rejection by another judge:

'Even if you are a ho-mo-sex-ual, Tanzania is perfectly safe. Stamp. Reject.'

Anyone might be led to thinking that the UK asylum system is all about finding a way to reject and remove a gay asylum seeker ... by any means necessary ...

This latest rejection of an appeal is based on the UK Border Agency (UKBA)'s initial trawl across the interwebs to find anything - anything - which could paint Tanzania as safe for the gays.

S/he Border Agent discovered a Tanzanian Bishop, Godfrey Mhogolo, who doesn't want gays burned at the stake and makes note that there are two LGBT organisations in Tanzania, and then there's an article which says, s/he writes:

"Most revealingly that there is a "quiet but vivid LGBT community in Darussalem"."

I say discover because the agent writes that they have trawled and found stuff, sorry, "objective evidence", which they say proves safety for the gays in Tanzania:

"The objective evidence produced above is totally inconsistent with your claim that the society at large in Tanzania is homophobic and you will be persecuted there for being a gay man," the agent writes.

What s/he obviously does not do is include anything s/he might find which contradicts this task of suggesting inconsistency and therefore no 'credibility' to the asylum claim.

Last year the website Gay Middle East was amazed to discover an article of theirs on Syria being quoted out of context in an gay asylum case.

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Gay Tanzanian activist meets British asylum system: Is losing

Eddy Cosmas (centre) at NUS LGBT conference

By Paul Canning

An African gay activist, Edson 'Eddy' Cosmas, has had his first appeal for UK asylum turned down by a judge in a hearing 26 May at Harmondsworth detention centre, where he is being held.

Judge S. Chana accepted the UK Border Agency (UKBA)'s argument that Eddy's story was not 'credible' and that he has no reason to fear persecution in Tanzania even if he was gay, which he isn't.

A lawyer for Eddy, who had only been instructed for the case the previous night, asked for the case to be removed from the 'fast track process' so a psychological and physical assessment (to establish whether he had been tortured) could take place. This was refused, in part because the judge accepted UKBA's evidence on the absence of persecution of homosexuality in Tanzania and "I took the view that I would not be assisted by the additional reports." A reason that Eddy was not credible and she rejected the appeal was because the judge thought a Tanzanian homosexual should know more about developments on homosexuality in Tanzania.

In other words, her argument was: 'if you are a gay activist, as you say you are, you are not a very good one.'

Last week, we examined the problems with the initial decision on Eddy's case which has led UKBA to place him in 'fast-track' (which leaves him with vastly reduced time to make his case). In particular we pointed to how evidence on Tanzania had been found by UKBA to back their argument that gays are not persecuted there, contrary to guidance, and how various aspects taken to undermine Eddy's credibility were in fact based on, at best, cultural misreadings or misunderstandings or, at worst, willful ignorance.

Most pointedly, the UKBA initial decision maker, found the evidence Eddy gave about how gay men meet each other in Tanzania 'not credible'. So did the judge, saying: "I found these answers to be vague and unimpressive in demonstrating a knowledge and experience of how gay men in Tanzania find gay partners for one night stands [sic]. I would have expected a person with genuine experience to have given more detailed and coherent answers." Like UKBA, the judge believe they could not be persecution in Tanzania if two LGBT organisations and an underground gay scene on the island of Zanzibar exists. The judge said that Eddy "would be expected to know more" about Zanzibar, or more than that the Tanzanian government is 'against homosexuality', because Eddy has had 'one night stands' (the judge's pejorative phrase, and my emphasis).

The judge then makes much of a lack of prosecutions for homosexual offences reported in human rights reports (such as that of the State Dept.). She said that the Nigerian gay activist Rev. Jide Macauley, who was giving evidence, said that the "only risk for homosexuals is from Tanzanian society and not from the government." This is contrasted by her with Eddy saying that he had read of people being convicted and sentenced in Tanzanian newspapers.

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How one gay Tanzanian's asylum rejection shows the UK system's unfairness

Eddy Cosmas (centre) at NUS LGBT conference

By Paul Canning

A gay Tanzanian activist has had his asylum case rejected at the first hurdle because he's not been accepted as gay. His case has been determined as one which can be quickly decided and he's therefore been placed in the 'fast track' process and immediately detained.

His treatment sets up an unnecessary battle with the Home Office, is a textbook example of how not to judge a gay asylum claim and undermines the promises of change made by the British government.

Edson “Eddy” Cosmas is a young black openly gay man originally from Tanzania. He was attacked at a club in Zanzibar and then by police. His father threatened to kill him when he was discovered to be gay. He sent him for counselling and eventually sent him away, to the UK. After being here for a few years and after overstaying his visa he took the advice of others and applied for asylum.

Homosexuality carries up to life imprisonment in Tanzania and, although there is not much coverage in human rights reports of the situation for gay people what exists is similar to that elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa showing the risk of discrimination, blackmail, violence from the community and the state. The experience Eddy relates isn't uncommon and it is near impossible in Tanzania as elsewhere for a gay man to live openly.

Following last July's Supreme Court decision, which ended the 'go home and be discrete' approach to gay asylum claims, UK Border Agency (UKBA) developed guidance for decision makers which highlights that they must apply the test which the justices laid down:

a)  Is the applicant gay or someone who would be treated as gay by potential persecutors in the country of origin?

b)  If yes, would gay people who live openly be liable to persecution in that country of origin?

c)  How would the applicant behave on return?  If the applicant would live openly and be exposed to a real risk of persecution, he has a well-founded fear of persecution even if he could avoid the risk by living discreetly.

d)  If the applicant would live discreetly, why would he live discreetly?  If the applicant would live discreetly because he wanted to do so, or because of social pressures (e.g. not wanting to distress his parents or embarrass his friends) then he is not a refugee.  But if a material reason for living discreetly would be the fear of persecution that would follow if he lived openly, then he is a refugee.

They are also told:

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