LGBTQI+ People Seeking Asylum and HIV: ‘I’d rather deal with a real elephant!’
We work with people from all around the world and wellbeing is the focus of our support services. Everyone has a different experience of HIV but a common theme has been that HIV support and prevention services are a territory that are not always known and come with their own set of risks. ‘We should talk about the elephant in the room,’ I’d said, in one of our support groups discussing being safe in Queer spaces. Once I’d explained what the saying meant and focused on the topic, our service users seemed more daunted to discuss HIV than if an elephant had been in the room. Some of our service users actually curled up on their chairs or hugged the person next to them. ‘I’d rather deal with a real elephant!’ one said.
A fundamental lack of understanding and fear of contacting the NHS could have massive implications on someone’s health and wellbeing. Our service users have many fears about accessing a service: determining if it is an LGBTQI+ friendly space as well as a safe space for people seeking asylum. Add to that the concern that they may see someone from their home community in the building, or, if attending somewhere local, be seen accessing the building. Already, before they have even walked through the door, there are many anxieties and complications.
We know that GP services are available to people seeking asylum, but this is not always the message reception staff in GP surgeries and walk-in centres communicate to vulnerable individuals. This leaves those same vulnerable people even more confused and with a reinforced fear that they should not be accessing a service. We know that those who have suffered trauma can shy away from advocating for themselves and sometimes feel they don’t want to be a ‘burden’ to the country where they are claiming asylum. This is dangerous breeding ground for denial or for not getting the help someone needs.
What about people seeking asylum already living with HIV? They have many of the fears the others have plus the weight it bears on their support mechanisms. How can they possibly have open and honest conversations about their status when their minds are already filled with concerns like: if my partner finds out, he will dump me…or, if my friend finds out, they will not let me sleep on their sofa… or, if the rest of the house finds or opens a letter, I will be targeted…
One of our team supported someone who did not want to take any anti-viral medicine as their partner would find out about their status and they relied on the partner to translate for them. This obviously put the individual and the partner at great risk. We had several challenging conversations and helped them get some support from PositivelyUK and Doctors of the World.
I offered one-to-one sessions with a young man who contracted the virus from someone he met on an app. He was very angry and felt numb and unable to communicate his feelings and continued to engage in risky behaviours. I did some work on anger management and voicing his trauma and we signposted him to a local mental health charity but he said he felt guilty that he had ‘betrayed his freedom’; he was claiming asylum and now he had HIV. When I told him that he could live a relatively normal life with medicine in the UK, he was confused and perplexed; he was still holding onto misconceptions of the virus from back home and the practices to cure it there, which had triggered him.
So how do we help people seeking asylum navigate the services available? Have conversations, talk about the difficult things, recognise the common themes and that which is difficult as well as the relevant solutions needed. Normalise their fears. After all, these are many of the fears and concerns young people coming out have.
Some of our service users organised a day trip to access a sexual health clinic where they could get advice about PEP and PrEP that was far away from their community on the other side of London. In our support group meeting that week we practised what they might ask about. In the evening I received a phone call to say it had gone well and they felt empowered to access somewhere like this and take the reins.
A support service like ours offers a range of support – if you meet a person seeking asylum who is LGBTQI+, the single most important thing you can do is to advise they engage with a specific support service such as ours. LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum don’t always have peers who can support and challenge them when needed. I am in regular contact with places like Dean Street and Mortimer Market (leading sexual health services and HIV support for the LGBTQI+ community) and they are aware that a little extra time and support can go a long way with people seeing asylum. We’ve even had referrals from these services for people in need of a lawyer.
I remember at the end of that support group meeting where I addressed the elephant in the room, after I had spoken a service user turned around and said: ‘You mean…we must invite the elephant in and have a cup of tea? Let it all be ok?’ They had summed it up perfectly: keep talking, keep supporting, keep empowering.
UKLGIG responds to the outsourcing of asylum interviews
The Home Office has announced that it plans to bring in commercial contractors to carry out asylum interviews and gather evidence for claims, which are used to determine whether applicants should be granted refugee status.
Reacting to the news, UKLGIG Executive Director Leila Zadeh said:
“We’re extremely concerned to hear the Home Office is planning to outsource asylum interviews. The most important part of an asylum claim is telling your story and explaining why you believe it’s not safe for you to go back to your country of origin. It’s hard to imagine that commercial contractors will be well equipped to deal with the complexities and sensitivities of LGBTQI+ asylum claims. We urge the Home Office to reverse this decision and ensure they recruit and train their own staff to carry out interviews and decisions on asylum claims.”
Our response to the Migration Statistics Quarterly Report
The Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: May 2020 was released today (21 May).
We welcome the fact that fewer people are in detention, but it’s concerning that 650 people were in detention for more than 28 days, including one person who was held for almost three years.
The figures also show that almost two-thirds of those released from detention were released back into the community, so their detention served no purpose.
It’s good news that the asylum grant rate by the Home Office has increased, but 59% of people had to wait for more than six months for a decision.
UKLGIG responds to the Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention report
Today’s publication of the Independent Chief Inspector’s audit report on the Home Office’s Adults at Risk policy has highlighted a contradiction in the Home Office’s own policies and guidance. On the one hand, they say sexual orientation is not a risk factor, and elsewhere they recognise that open expression of your sexual orientation could lead to bullying.
The Independent Chief Inspector also recommends that the Home Office overhauls the way it collects data and information about the people it detains. The report finds that the Home Office is not collecting any data on LGBTQI+ people held in detention and that therefore it cannot say if its risk assessments are meeting the needs of LGBTQI+ individuals.
UKLGIG Executive Director Leila Zadeh said: “It is not right to expect any LGBTQI+ person to have to hide who they are in order to protect themselves in detention, while at the same time expecting them to be open in order to be granted refugee status.”
“Various sources of international law recognise that detention of LGBTQI+ people places them at risk. The UK government should end the detention of all LGBTQI+ people if it is truly committed to making sure they are safe and live without fear of harassment.”
Taking care of yourself during COVID-19
We know that this must be an extremely challenging time for you, our service users. As most of you are aware, we won’t be running our monthly meetings, support groups or social events during this time and our office is currently closed. However, we continue to offer legal advice, emotional and practical support via phone and email. We are looking into setting up our support groups in virtual form. Please continue to contact us through email, the group chat and the office phone.
In this time it is important you look after yourselves. Please try and:
- Look after yourself from a practical point. Please try and make wise choices with your money. Dried or canned food, rice, fruit and vegetables would be a wiser way to spend your money than on cigarettes, alcohol or convenience food/takeaways, at the moment. They are often cheaper too. Some people have had success at buying groceries in the smaller shops or early in the morning.
- Use the group chats to generally support one another and be positive. There have been lovely messages of hope and humour, and these are very important right now. The messages/links about where this virus came from or herbal folk remedies aren’t helpful right now. What is important is that we get through this and you are safe and looked after. There have been lovely messages of encouragement so please keep this up! Share tips, recipes, fun clips, general info and I will continue to do the same in our group chats.
- For those that are still using saunas and hook-up apps like Grindr, please be mindful that emergency PEP clinics will only be offering a very reduced service, and may well close temporarily. Please look after yourselves and think about possible risky behaviours.
- Ensure that you have enough of the prescribed medicines that you normally take.
- Be kind, have patience and know that many others will try and do the same, too. This is a difficult time but what is becoming apparent is the generosity of community and the many people out there trying to help.
- Be vigilant. There are also those out there looking to use this situation to their benefit.
- Look at the links below.
- In the groups we have spoken about parenting yourself. It may be you have to be the one who looks after you – and every one of you has the skillset to do that, you have demonstrated that when sharing and helping others in our groups.
- Contact us if you need legal or emotional or practical support. We will do what we can. Reach out to us if you are very worried or concerned about your wellbeing – please!
- Do some positive activities: watch comedy, ring a friend, cook or start a conversation on our group chats.
We are so proud of you all. We have seen you grow as a group and nurture one another, embrace challenges/obstacles and find solutions – all whilst trying to navigate the asylum process.
LGBTQI+ people are at risk in detention MPs tell government
Report by the Home Affairs Select Committee urges government to ‘recognise that LGBTQI+ people are vulnerable in immigration detention’.
An inquiry into immigration detention by the Home Affairs Select Committee has criticised the government for not recognising lesbian, gay and bisexual people as adults at risk in immigration detention centres. The report drew on the experiences of LGBTQI+ people subjected to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic discrimination, abuse and harassment inside detention centres.
The Committee say the Home Office has a ‘shockingly cavalier attitude’ to immigration detention and ‘overseen serious failings in almost every area of the immigration detention process’. The inquiry found that the most vulnerable detainees are not being afforded the necessary protection.
The report also relays concerns that detention has a direct impact on the prospects of LGBTQI+ people in need of protection being recognised as refugees.
The Committee calls for the government to extend the recognition that it already affords to trans and intersex people as vulnerable in immigration detention to all LGBTQI+ people. It also calls on the government to monitor and publish statistics on the number of LGBTQI+ people it detains.
Leila Zadeh, Executive Director of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG), said,
“Placing LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in immigration detention centres is dangerous. There is a significant risk of LGBTQI+ people being locked up among people who may display the same discriminatory attitudes and hostility from which they have fled.
LGBTQI+ people also frequently struggle to be granted refugee status if they have to make their asylum applications from inside a detention centre.
The government should give greater consideration to alternatives to detention that allow LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum to remain in the community while their claims are processed”.
In its report, the Committee also calls for an end to indefinite detention and a maximum 28-day time limit.
Bojana Asanovic, Barrister and Chair of UKLGIG, said,
“Home Office decisions to detain people should be subject to review by a judge. We need a 28 day time limit on all immigration detention, which should be cumulative and integrate robust safeguards”.