Thursday 27 June 2013



PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE
Information: 0207 482 2496

GREAT NEWS!  We just heard Linda Nakibuuka’s flight to Uganda has been cancelled! 

Thanks to all those who responded to our call for help.  Hear more about our own and others’ work tonight at 6pm at Crossroads Women’s Centre whenLegal Action for Women launches their newly revised Self-help Guide for Asylum Seekers and their Supporters.  We hope you can make it! 

Ms Nakibuuka was targeted for rape because of her sexuality and was refused protection by the police in Uganda. She remains very traumatized by her terrible experiences and has been attending the self-help group which Women Against Rape helps co-ordinate. The Home Office has refused to accept that she is a lesbian despite overwhelming evidence from LBGTQ organizations supporting her.  WAR has also made submissions to about the impact of Ms Nakibuuka’s ordeal and her ongoing needs as a victim of torture.  The Home Office refused all this evidence and was planning to remove her tonight at 8pm.  We continue to work with her lawyer in pursuing her legal case.  Ms Nakibuuka urgently needs to be released while her case is reconsidered so that she can access our own and other support.   

Petition Background (Preamble):

In Uganda Linda Nakibuka was attacked, sexually harassed and beaten by people who think homosexuality is a sin and contiguous. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda She came to the UK to be able for the first time to be herself as a lesbian and to live and study free from the persecution she faced in her own country.

On 11April 2012, Linda went to the UK Borders Agency to apply for asylum. However, despite her visa still being valid she was put in detention, placed on fast track and her claim was dismissed by the UKBA and the Immigration Judge, despite the fact that she had witnesses who knew her from Uganda and as well LGBT friends in the UK.

Thanks to all who signed the petition, demonstrated and wrote letters LINDA HAS BEEN FREED FROM DETENTION! On the 24th July Linda was freed , now out of Yarls Wood she is fighting the next stage to get asylum which has been refused.

On 7th July 2010 the UK Supreme Court overturned the racist, homophobic policy of sending Lesbian/Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people to their deaths. However little has changed. The UKBA has devised another trick of telling LGBT asylum seekers that they are not gay, as a pretext to deport them. We cannot let this continue - be a part of the change by signing this petition.

Linda is known to be gay in Uganda - She cannot be safe there. Asylum NOW for Linda Nakibuuka!

Petition:



Women Against Rape, Crossroads Women’s Centre,
25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX