A new asylum consideration training course on sexual orientation has been devised for asylum case owners to help them conduct sensitive and objective enquiries.
The new one-day training module, which was piloted in London and Liverpool, has been developed to support the publication of the recent asylum instruction on sexual orientation.
As part of the training, decision makers learn how to interview applicants whose claims are brought on the grounds of sexual orientation sensitively and effectively, using appropriate lines of questioning. The training will also enhance decision makers’ ability to make the most of country of origin information and write the most effective decisions possible.
The training has been devised with input from key corporate partners including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Stonewall and the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group and is expected to be rolled out to all regions by March 2011.
The course highlights some of the challenges in dealing with lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum claims and offers excellent advice on the correct approaches. Trainees particularly welcomed the opportunity to discuss questioning techniques and to share their own experiences.
She is the human face of a government policy that stands accused of condemning refugees to a life of enforced poverty.
Maryam doesn’t wish to give her surname as the story she has to tell is so degrading: she is forced to live on just £5 a day by the British state.
The sum can’t be spent as she likes because it is loaded on to a Government-issued card which can only be used in certain supermarkets.
It means she can’t get a bus and cannot get the halal food she requires as a Muslim, and the card is often not recognised even by staff in the stores where it should be used.
Like many her application for asylum has been refused, but the state accepts that it cannot send her back to her home country as her life would be in danger.
That is when the humiliation starts. They make me feel as if I am a thief.
Maryam, asylum seeker
The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (LGF) are working in partnership with Refugee Action, The EHRC and 1 North West and are hosting an informal discussion evening around lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGB&T) refugee and asylum seekers on Tuesday 30 November 2010, at the LGF, 5 Richmond Street, Manchester, M1 3HF.
This will include an overview of the current legal implications for LGB&T refugee and asylum seekers, and people who either work with, support or are a member of the LGB&T refugee and asylum seeker community are all welcome.
If you’d like to share your knowledge and experience or you would simply like to get more actively involved; come along from 6.30pm to 8pm for an informal discussion evening. This is also a great opportunity to come along to The LGF and see the wide range of services and support that is available.
Everyone is welcome, but please let us know you’re coming along by either emailing rainbow@lgf.org.uk or telephone 0845 3 30 30 30 and speak to Adam or Darren. If you have any specific access or dietary requirements, please let us know in advance.
Look out for the next issue of outnorthwest out on 24 November for a special news feature on LGBT asylum.
Northern Ireland’s first detention centre will go ahead despite opposition from residents and human rights activists.
A meeting was held 29 October between the UK Border Agency, the Planning Service and Larne Borough Council to discuss the matter after concerns were raised over the impact the facility could have on Larne.
Immigration officials want to convert Hope Street police station into a short-term holding centre capable of housing up to 22 detainees.
Under the initial plans the existing custody suites would be used to hold adults and an extension would be built at the back of the site for showering, catering and exercise facilities.
But the proposals — which have already been approved by the Planning Service — have angered some residents as well as human rights activists.
The plans have also raised opposition from the far-right British National Party (BNP) which printed leaflets claiming Larne had been “earmarked as a dumping ground for illegal immigrants and bogus asylum seekers”.
"We are concerned that the latest figures show that one in four initial asylum refusals is later found to be wrong at appeal. For certain nationalities, such as for people from Somalia, this figure rises to 1 in 2. We are particularly concerned that this comes at a time when the government is planning to make cuts to legal aid for asylum appeals.
"The review of legal aid, coupled with the latest fall in asylum applications, is an opportunity for the government to push forward with its commitment to getting decisions right first time. Providing asylum seekers with good quality legal advice as early as possible will help to achieve this. In turn, this would significantly reduce the number of cases which go to appeal and thereby represents a clear opportunity to make significant savings."
One of Britain's oldest refugee campaigning groups has thrown its weight behind LGBT asylum seekers.
Refugee Action, founded in 1981 to provide a "radical new approach towards the successful resettlement in the UK of refugees and asylum seekers", has launched the 'Free to be me' campaign. It is calling for the government to 'follow on' from July's Supreme Court decision which nullified government policy that told asylum seekers to 'go home and be discrete'.
The campaign wants proper training for UK Border Agency (UKBA) decision makers, saying that the process LGBT asylum seekers are subjected to is often "unfair and degrading". They say that the methods employed for asylum seekers to 'prove' their sexuality are often "stereotypical and offensive". As a result, many are wrongly assessed, they say.
Stonewall's report on LGBT asylum, released in May and based on interviews with both asylum seekers as well as UKBA workers, documented the lack of knowledge around sexuality in the 'global south' and included pleas from many UKBA workers for better information and training. We've reported on the 'country information' supplied to those workers is often partial or even misleading.
One UKBA senior caseworker is quoted in Stonewall's report as saying that in order to decide if an asylum applicant was gay, "I would look at how they've explored their sexuality in a cultural context - reading Oscar Wilde perhaps, films and music."
It also quotes a Nigerian asylum seeker's experience:
They ask about who you have sex with, how many people and how many times. When you've never told anyone and now you have five people asking you questions about this - I found it difficult to talk about.
Now it’s down to the hard task of testing peoples sexuality, I am terrified to see what sort of questions the interviewers come up with….. Who is Dorothy?….. Is Lady Gaga a man?….. And of course following on from Lord Rodgers comments any man who can’t describe what Kylie was wearing at her last concert in great details or at least provide his ticket stubs will be disbelieved.
Refugee Action say that
Currently, Home Office officials don't understand that:
If you've had to cover up being gay all your life, evidence of previous relationships is not easy to prove.
You might be too scared to say you're gay at your first interview. If you've fled torture for being gay, being open with officials will be a terrifying ordeal.
Even where same-sex relationships aren't illegal. people are cast out by their families, forced into marriages or violently attacked.
What they're asking is that UKBA staff should be properly trained in the law, culture and everyday practice that influence an LGBT person’s ability to live freely and safely in their country of origin. The campaign's theme is:
Living freely and safely is everyone’s right. It’s time to put an end to double standards.
Campaigns officer Sara Ayech says that over 500 people have already taken the action online and when they took the campaign to Brighton's LGBT Pride event earlier this month another 200 people signed the action card.
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