Suella Braverman says being gay isn’t reason enough to claim asylum
Fear of being persecuted over being gay and/or a woman is not reason enough to claim asylum in the UK, Suella Braverman is set to argue in an upcoming speech.
The Home Secretary will address the rising numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats by controversially arguing that nobody doing so “is fleeing imminent peril”.
In her address to the American Enterprise Institute, a centre-right think tank in Washington DC, on 26 September, she will add: “Let me be clear, there are vast swathes of the world where it is extremely difficult to be gay, or to be a woman.
Where individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary. “But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection.” Braverman’s words echo Home Office minister Chris Philp, who alleged that “some people claim to be gay when they’re not” in order to suggest they are fleeing danger. “When I was immigration minister I came across a number of cases when people had claimed to be gay, produced photographs of them and a sort of same-sex partner and it turned out on further investigation it was a sibling, it wasn’t a same-sex partner at all,” he told Times Radio earlier today. “Many LGBTQI+ people that we support every day tell us how they faced life-threatening situations back home” Leila Zadeh, Executive Director at Rainbow Migration, a charity that helps LGBTQIA+ people through the asylum and immigration system, said she was “appalled” by Braverman “questioning the legitimacy of LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum in the UK”. “Many LGBTQI+ people that we support every day tell us how they faced life-threatening situations back home,” she told GAY TIMES.
