Asylum Seeker Wins Legal Fight Over Deportation to Uganda

Kristen Zanoni | September 30, 2020

Category: Civil Rights

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A lesbian asylum seeker who was removed from the U.K. and unlawfully deported to Uganda has won a victory against the Home Office.

The 27-year-old woman known as PN endured a gang rape when she was sent back to Uganda in an unlawful deportation by the Home Office, according to Yahoo.

On 28 September, PN won a seven-year struggle to return to the U.K. after her unlawful deportation to Uganda.

In December 2013, PN was deported from the U.K. in a now-defunct system known as “detained fast track”, which was later found to be against the law, The Guardian reported.

The system was used to decide over 10,000 deportation cases, but PN was the only person the Home Office was directed to bring back to the U.K.

After PN returned to the U.K., the Home Office argued her deportation to Uganda was legitimate, but the Home Office lost in the Court of Appeal. Had PN not been victorious, she would have been faced deportation to Uganda for the second time. The ruling will allow her to continue appealing her unlawful deportation.

PN is also fighting for damages from the Home Office after unlawfully spending time in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre.

According to The Guardian, PN is content with the unlawful deportation ruling.

“I feel so happy for this decision,” she said. “When you are fighting so long for something it feels like you will never win and that is very frightening. This journey has not been easy and it is amazing to win against the Home Office who have put me through so much torture — I was waiting for this day to come.”

“When I remember what I went through in Yarl’s Wood it makes me feel really bad — I don’t want to think about it because it makes me so upset,” PN added. “Although I am so happy for this decision it cannot take those memories out of my mind; my mind is already damaged for life.”

PN identifies as a member of the LGBT+ community, and her unlawful deportation to Uganda forced her to keep a low profile and hide her sexuality, as the country is not as openly LGBT-friendly. Many members of the LGBT+ community seek asylum in other countries to escape Uganda’s anti-LGBT+ laws.

PN sought asylum in 2011 looking for a safe place to live in the U.K., Yahoo reported. She feared for her life living as a lesbian in Uganda.

However, PN faced challenges. The Home Office did not believe she was gay, and she dealt with the deportation to Uganda in 2013. She was not given enough time to piece together evidence for her case, and her asylum was denied.

After returning to her home country, PN was gang-raped and robbed by a group of men.

PN recalls the event, saying, “I was sleeping one night … the people came, they banged on the door, they stole everything and they raped me,” according to Yahoo.

She added: “I was on my own in the room. I couldn’t tell the police as I don’t want them to know who I am.”

She is now the mother of an 18-month-old son after becoming pregnant following the gang rape.

“This decision is the culmination of almost seven years of struggle for PN, for our fight to bring her back after her unlawful removal under fast track,” Karen Doyle of Movement for Justice, a supporter of PN’s, told The Guardian.

“It is a victory for PN, for the movement, for all those who suffered under fast track and for LGBT asylum seekers who are routinely disbelieved,” Doyle continued. “She has shown incredible courage and will to survive under the most difficult of circumstances, she is an inspiration to so many.”

Do you think PN will also be awarded damages for her unlawful deportation ordeal? Share your opinions in the comments section.

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