Did Ugandan Brenda Namigadde Lie About Being A Lesbian To Score British Asylum?

Brenda Namigadde, the 29-year-old Ugandan woman living in Britain who initially scored a reprieve from deportation by claiming her homosexuality would subject her to threats and violence, has renewed her appeal to avoid being shipped off. And it curiously leaves out any mention that she's a lesbian — only that she's been reported in the press to be one.

Now that she's been slapped with the "lesbian" title, Namigadde remains at risk, the Telegraph relays.

Her legal team managed to secure a last-minute delay in her removal from Britain by arguing that as a homosexual she would be at risk of persecution in her African homeland. But now lawyers acting for the woman, who can be identified only as "BN", have submitted a new appeal on her behalf – which no longer hinges on her sexuality. Instead, they say that because she has appeared in newspapers claiming to be gay, she would inevitably be at risk in Uganda whatever her true sexual orientation.

How come? Because a judge handling the case ruled Namigadde isn't gay at all.

Earlier this month this newspaper revealed how she was unable to remember the surname, age, employer or other details of a woman with whom she claimed she had a six-year relationship in Uganda. Nor could she describe a lesbian bar in London that she claimed she visited regularly.

BN came to Britain in 2002 and overstayed her visa, later lodging an asylum claim. She claimed to have been beaten and victimised over her sexuality. The Home Office refused her claim and began deportation proceedings. Last December, immigration judge Toby Davey ruled that BN should be sent back to Uganda. He criticised the 28-year-old for a "lack of candour" over her sexuality, and concluded: "I find that the appellant was and is not, on the evidence before me, a lesbian." Yet following the ruling, BN secured sympathetic coverage in several newspapers. Her lawyers, Luton-based Cardinal Solicitors, were quoted on the dangers she allegedly faced, and BN herself gave interviews from inside Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre.

Now Namigadde's lawyers claim "the credibility of the applicant's sexuality … is entirely irrelevant to the risk … that the applicant will face. … The risk derives from a widespread national public perception of the applicant being homosexual." Which, uh, she and her representatives, it appears, conveniently manufactured. In which case: shame on them. Because while Namigadde may have decent reasons to want to stay in Britain and away from her homeland, gaming the system — and casting more speculation and cynicism on actual LGBTs who need the safe haven that asylum offers — hurts everyone.

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Ugandan Lesbian Brenda Namigadde Freed, UK Court Bans Media from Saying Her Name

by Tanya Domi

Brenda Namigadde, a Uganda lesbian who is fighting deportation to Uganda, has been released tonight, United Kingdom-based LGBT Asylum News just tweeted late this afternoon. The judge however, Lord Justice Maurice Kay, has prohibited the government, press and any one else in the United Kingdom from speaking or writing her name.

Readers, if you are in disbelief about the veracity of the directive, just visit the LGBT Asylum News website, which has changed its home page from “Brenda Namigadde Updates” to “BN Updates.”

Namigadde was scheduled to attend a Royal Court of Appeal injunction hearing on Monday before Judge Kay. No mainstream media in Britain have reported on her case since the hearing was conducted.

Read: “Ugandan Lesbian Facing Certain Deportation Death Wins Temporary Reprieve“

When The New Civil Rights Movement spoke to the UK Border Agency press about Brenda Namigadde’s status  just two hours ago, the press officer said that the court has directed that the subject’s name can not be referenced. The official statement provided to us from a UK Border Agency spokesperson said:

“We are disappointed by the court’s decision. The government has made it clear that it is committed to stopping the removal of asylum seekers who have genuinely had to leave particular countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identification. However, when someone is found not to have a genuine claim we expect them to leave voluntarily.”

LGBT Asylum News is reporting, ”BN’s Judicial Review deadline in on Friday. This is not a hearing but the deadline for receipt of new evidence which would, in the case of BN, show the specific threat if she was to be removed.”

“If this review is accepted then a fresh claim for asylum can proceed.”

Without further corroboration, it is unclear if Namigadde has lost her case for asylum for the moment at least and she may be pending deportation once again. More to come on the asylum case of Ugandan Brenda Namigadde. Stay tuned.

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Ugandan Lesbian Can Stay in U.K.

By Advocate.com Editors

A lesbian from Uganda who faced being deported back to her home country will be allowed to remain in the United Kingdom under a temporary reprieve.

The U.K. high court granted Brenda Namiggade the temporary stay Friday, after David Kato, a gay Ugandan activist, was found dead in his home. It is suspected that he was murdered for being gay, as he has publicly said he feared for his life.

Namiggade has been living in the U.K. since 2002 and applied for asylum so she could become a permanent legal resident there. However, an immigration judge overseeing her case said there was no evidence that Namiggade was a lesbian. She was scheduled to be deported to Uganda Friday from Heathrow Airport and had even been escorted to the airport, where she heard the news that she would be allowed to remain in her adopted country, according to the BBC.

Namiggade, 29, told The Advocate Thursday that she was so worried she had been unable to eat for days. Antigay Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati said she would be welcome to return as long as she “abandon or repent her behavior.”

“I’m not going to repent, because that’s who I am,” Namigadde said. “David Bahati is going to put a death penalty on me.”

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A Ugandan Woman's Desperate Plea

By Julie Bolcer and Andrew Harmon

The shocking murder of Uganda gay rights activist David Kato has heightened the urgency surrounding the case of Brenda Namigadde, a lesbian facing deportation from the United Kingdom to the virulently homophobic African country on Friday.

Namigadde spoke with The Advocate Thursday afternoon from the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire, where she has been held for two months. In a soft voice, she repeatedly expressed fears that she would be killed if she is forced to return to her native Uganda.

“I’m not feeling well at all, just worried,” Namigadde said, noting that anxiety had prevented her from eating for the past two days. “There is no hope. I am so broken.”

The 29-year-old is scheduled to board a Friday evening flight from Heathrow Airport to Uganda, where her safety is anything but certain. On Wednesday, Kato, one of many LGBT people who had been outed and threatened with hanging in the country's Rolling Stone newspaper, was beaten to death with a hammer in the village of Mukono, east of the capital city of Kampala.

Namigadde worried she could suffer the same fate.

“It makes me feel very bad,” she said. “It’s really very scary to go back to Uganda. My life is gone as well. I am in danger. [Kato] is the one who was trying to stand for people.”

British officials have thus far refused to grant asylum to Namigadde, saying there is insufficient evidence that she is a lesbian. Her attorney submitted another claim with new evidence this week.

It’s unclear whether the frightening implications of Kato’s murder will sway British Home Secretary Theresa May to reconsider Namigadde’s deportation, though Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, said, “It seems like the changed circumstances [regarding Kato’s murder] would provide at least a temporary reprieve from deportation.”

“In the past, public scrutiny and public outcry in the U.K. have been somewhat effective and have resulted in temporary reprieves,” Bromley said.

All Out, a New York–based organization launched this month and focused on the global movement for LGBT rights, initiated a letter-writing campaign after hearing about Namigadde’s situation last week. According to All Out cofounder Andre Banks, the group has sent about 8,300 letters to May’s office via its website as of Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve been talking with both Brenda and her attorney. She’s very upset, very concerned to hear about David Kato’s murder as well as her fear of imminent deportation,” Banks said. He added that representatives with the home secretary’s office told him they had received a deluge of mail in support of Namigadde over the past 24 hours. But Banks has not heard whether Namigadde’s deportation is being reconsidered.

Speaking from the detention center, Namigadde dismissed recent reports that David Bahati, the Ugandan parliament member sponsoring a bill to make homosexuality punishable by death in certain instances, had offered to remove the capital punishment language from his legislation. Bahati told the U.K. newspaper The Guardian that Namigadde would be welcome in Uganda if she would “abandon or repent her behavior” and cease bringing international scrutiny on the country. Otherwise, he suggested that she would be punished with arrest or worse.

“I’m not going to repent, because that’s who I am,” Namigadde said. “David Bahati is going to put a death penalty on me.”

Namigadde said that she has no family members or friends in Uganda, where some lesbians she once knew have disappeared or, she surmises, have been killed. She has not spoken to her Canadian partner, Janet, since about 2004, one year after they fled Uganda, where homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

“Nowhere to live, nowhere to stay, nowhere to be safe,” Namigadde said. “I can’t move out from the country. My life is in danger. I’m going to be killed. I can’t be going back to Uganda.”

If and when the moment of deportation arrives Friday, Namigadde said she would refuse to comply, even if that means she is forcibly removed. It would constitute one last plea to British officials.

“I gave them all the evidence. I provided everything,” she said. “They don’t believe me.”

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