An illegal migrant successfully appealed against Home Office attempts to deport him using evidence that he was gay based on going to LGBT clubs.
The unnamed Bangladeshi man, 41, entered the UK legally in 2018 on a six-month student visa and claimed asylum in an effort to remain in the UK. His application was rejected and all of his avenues of appeal were exhausted in June 2019, but he still avoided deportation.
However, the man, who was given anonymity by the immigration tribunal judge who heard his case on June 13, came to the attention of the authorities again after he was found working illegally in September 2022.
A month later, he lodged another asylum claim on the grounds that he would face persecution as a gay man if he returned to Bangladesh, where homosexuality is illegal.
It was rejected by the Home Office in October 2023, prompting an appeal based on a claim that his deportation would breach article 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights because his life would be under threat and he would face torture or inhumane treatment.
The Home Office disputed the man’s claim that he was gay. However, appealing to the upper immigration and asylum tribunal, the man overturned the decision by submitting evidence that he had met his partner at an LGBT club in Newcastle. He said that the pair had also attended Pride events.
The judge overturned the original Home Office decision and ordered the man’s case be reheard, enabling him to remain in the UK in the meantime.
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In another case, an Algerian criminal won the right to stay in the UK after a judge concluded that he would face “mockery” in his home country for being transgender.
The 27-year-old man, named only as MS, served a jail sentence for robbery and committed offences including burglary, theft and battery after arriving in the UK on refugee status in 2013.
In an appeal against the Home Office’s attempts to deport him, he argued he would be targeted in Algeria because of his sexuality, which he described as “gay, transvestite and/or transgender”.
Judge Hanson agreed and allowed MS to remain in the UK, overriding the Home Office’s decision to revoke his refugee status. The judge said: “Were MS to return to Algeria and be open about his sexuality, he would be at risk of mockery, harassment, discrimination and potential harm from non-state actors.
“Were he to wear women’s clothes and make-up, he would certainly draw negative attention to himself, and would likely be subjected to ridicule, hostility and possible harm. While there are some transvestites and transgender individuals in Algeria … they have suffered abuse and harm.
“Indeed, [his] account … of being ridiculed for wearing women’s clothes and make-up in public areas is entirely plausible, as are his father’s threats to kill him on account of his behaviour.”