The Fight For UK Asylum For Lesbian Fleeing Sharia Wrath In Nigeria
A judge has adjourned court following an intense hearing of the highly publicized case of Aderonke Apata, a Nigerian lesbian fighting for asylum in the UK.
The 47-year-old gay rights advocate and award-winner came to Britain from Nigeria in 2004, seeking asylum on religious grounds.
Coming from a Christian family, she married a Muslim man in what she says was a sham arrangement to cover up her long-term relationship with a woman.
Apata claims her husband’s family turned against her when they suspected she was gay, and took her to a sharia court, where she was sentenced to death for adultery. Her brother and three-year-old son, she says, were killed by mobs.
She ran away, lived on the streets in Manchester, and now her case has come to the Royal Courts of Justice for a final decision. Will she be given asylum, or will she be sent back to Nigeria where she could face certain death?
Protestors from around the world gathered in London to rally at the hearing on March 3rd. Just one petition calling for Apata’s safety has over 230,000 signatures.
“In many places around Africa, LGBT people are being persecuted for their sexual orientation, suffering corrective rape, their lives being threatened,” Rose Bear, originally from Angola and South Africa, was reported as saying. “I’m here today in support of LGBT from Africa who are seeking asylum to escape threats to their lives. It’s right that countries who can afford should give them asylum so that they can continue their lives peacefully.”
In the recent weeks, stories have emerged from UK detention centers such as Yarl’s Wood wherein violence, sexual harassment and bullying occur against LGBTI asylum seekers.
Charlotte Kristensen, from Denmark, said: “It’s beyond terrifying. Just to think that these people have gone through so much, being so close to being safe. To come onto English soil and become terrorised, tortured and abused by a country that’s an asylum. It’s a shame, I am actually ashamed to be English sometimes.”
Prosecutors have accused Apata of the following:
‘She looked ‘feminine’ in Africa, with longer hair, and her ‘stereotyped lesbian appearance was adopted after the initial decline of asylum in the UK’.
‘Her gay rights activism started after she was first refused grant of asylum.
‘The people who signed a petition were ‘duped’ and have given ‘layers and layers of lies and inconsistencies’.
‘Apata had male relationships and cannot contact last three lesbian relationships but formed false sexual ones in detainment.
‘A sexual identity cannot ‘change’ as much as race cannot – thus her identity as a heterosexual on her first asylum application must be taken into account.
‘She is a ‘clever woman’ who has used the media to gain support and pressure the Home Office.
‘If she went back to Nigeria, she wouldn’t have the stress of this court case and wouldn’t have the mental health issues to deal with. She would not have attempted suicide if not put through this stress.
‘Her LGBT activism was a last ditch attempt to remain in the UK.’
The judge questioned many of the points made, arguing sexuality can be fluid and that some people ‘discover’ themselves. He also mentioned that even if she is not a lesbian, her public support and name recognition will certainly put her at risk in Nigeria.
Apata’s attorney then put the following to the court:
‘This is a fresh case, and that she has done everything she can to prove that she is indeed a lesbian, including showing that she is ready to debase herself to provide ‘evidence’ of a sexual nature.
‘She is at risk of imprisonment with her involvement of LGBT activism in Nigeria.
‘Her suicide attempt whilst in prison was genuine, and was only in prison for being a figurehead in a detainee center, protesting her rights.
‘Under immigration laws, conventional rights and asylum laws, she should be granted asylum as she is at risk when back in Nigeria.’
It was clear the judge struggled to make a decision, saying he thanked the members of the public that were sitting in on the hearing for their patience as he knew it was a highly emotional case and means a great deal to many people.
He is expected to make a decision in three weeks.
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13 Comments
Gad
March 06, 06:05I always have reservations on many of the asylum seeking cases by Africans and Asians. A mob killed a 3 years old? That’s crazy. I’m sure there are things we are not being told.
Chizzie
March 06, 06:42Most of these asylum stories are made up, and I feel this is one of them. its one thing to want greener pasture but dont drag your country’s image down the dirt in the process. They need to ship her lesbian ass back home if u ask me.
Gad
March 06, 07:34I thought I’m alone
A-non
March 06, 06:55Hmmm
jamie
March 06, 07:18*Hmm* too…
Max
March 06, 07:29So I have to prove I’m gay before I can get an asylum??
Maybe have an orgy or two with 6 black guys and maybe thrown in a dildo for effect. All these, while a “gay assurance officer” is watching.. Smh
trystham
March 06, 08:41lolz @ gay assurance officer
Homely
March 06, 07:45Apologies I would be distracting Dennis from the subject here.
DM, we cannot protest on the street against GEJ for signing the Anti-gay Bill to Law, but don’t you think the next presidential election is where we can protest?
We are concerned citizens and this is a National issue affecting us. Above all, everyone has one reason to voting a particular person, can’t the fourteen years law be our own reason?
Time to make use of lord of karma.
#TeamKizito
March 06, 08:04Homely, you too? You aff now join the queue too?
Ok. Continu’..
DM kwa.. Oh.
Gad
March 06, 08:14#smilling# when Gad spoke about members of the LGBT community making a political case for themselves,all manner of counterings came on,mostly due to the urge to just say something. If the politicians see that bill as a minus they will quickly make a u-turn. Unfortunately, there is not enough sensitization yet on the topic except the one sided chorus of, gay is unnatural, evil, an aberration, mental disorder etc. The big question is : who will bail the cat?. This is where “professional rights activists” ought to come in.
keredim69
March 06, 13:21Question guys? Would you have been more sympathetic to Ms Apata’s plight if it was a male and a gay case?
That aside, she would have been granted asylum quickly if she was a jihadi bride running away from ISIS. The British government would have feted her….. Anyway, i wish her well…
Legalkoboko
March 08, 07:45This is precisely why LGBT Nigerians traveling to the UK are advised to quickly make contact with the local LGBT clubs, bars, pubs and rights associations on arrival. You may want to face your business and do your thing your own way, but as this story has shown, it is always best to identify with the LGBT community at the earliest opportunity.
Just take a critical look at the lethal weapons the prosecution is armed with against her:
‘Her gay rights activism started after she was
first refused grant of asylum’
bam!
So she was busy playing with boobs and doing her own thing, and never thought about the rainy day?
‘Apata had male relationships and cannot
contact last three lesbian relationships but
formed false sexual ones in detainment’.
If only she was close to the grassroots LGBT community, she would have picked her hookups there and thus it would have been less difficult for her to contact them. Besides, the community would have been a very reliable surety for her. But I guess she hooked up with extremely mobile prostitutes whom she wouldn’t have even had time to know on first name bases.
Moral of the story: get involved with the gay community as soon as you land in any western country. You never can tell when you may want to play the gay card.
Gad
March 08, 12:31Asylum seekers take note. Thanks Legal