“Guilty until proven innocent“: the trial of LGBT asylum seekers detained in the UK

Gay people who seek asylum in Britain and end up in detention centres continue to face the "reverse of justice" and the threat of deportation.

By Tom Batchelor

(Photo By Gay asylum seekers still face the threat of deportation. Photo: Flickr/Nicky Rowbottom)

Sitting in the visitors’ hall of high-security Colnbrook immigration removal centre, Eric cuts a feeble figure beside two burly security guards who are keeping a watchful eye.

Eric was just 20 when he fled death threats in his native Ghana. The son of two farmers, he says since his village in the conservative African nation discovered he was gay, neighbours are no longer buying crops from his family’s smallholding, and now his relatives are struggling to survive.