Margret Nazziwa, a lesbian activist and asylum seeker who was due to be deported to Uganda from the UK, was released yesterday.
Nazziwa, who fled Uganda in 2012 after experiencing persecution because of her sexual orientation, had been detained in Yarls Wood Detention Centre in Bedfordshire, and told she would be deported on last Sunday.
Today the Home Office told campaigners that her deportation would be ‘deferred’.
“I feel great and I am so happy. I am grateful and I would like to thank all the people who have been supporting me. I’m so happy that UKBA are releasing me, and that they have agreed to hear my case again.”
Margret Nazziwa
A Home Office spokesperson said it does not routinely discuss individual cases, but said:
“The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and we consider every claim for asylum on its individual merits. When someone is found not to need our protection, we expect them to leave the country voluntarily. Where they do not we will seek to enforce their departure.”
Home Office spokesperson
The Home Office has come under renewed criticism over its policy on processing LGBT asylum claims. Last week, the High Court ruled that fast track detention, a system used to process the vast majority of LGBT asylum cases, was ‘unlawful’.
A review of UK LGBT asylum policy by Sir John Vine, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, will be published this month.
