Hired Killer in UK Law

The eighth item relates to SL, a member of ALGA, referred to in an article entitled “Albania's Gay Flight” by Ben Andoni in Tirana dated 5 December 2007, which described how they were sitting in a park when two police vans pulled over. The officers got out of the van and dragged them away. One of the drivers came over to SL and kicked him repeatedly shouting “shut up you faggot”.

He relied upon the US Department of State 2007 Albania Country Report which repeated claims by the Albanian Gay and Lesbian Association that the police arbitrarily arrested homosexuals and then physically and verbally abused them while they were in detention and that during the year police harassed members of the Albanian Gay and Lesbian Association and other known homosexuals, sometimes searching their homes without a warrant.

The immigration judge found that she remained living at home for several weeks after this without being assaulted or disowned. There was no suggestion that the appellant had ever been threatened with death for dishonouring her family. She said that indeed she had decided to leave for the United Kingdom before she told her mother what the problem was and before her brother beat her.

The immigration judge's conclusion therefore was that when she decided to leave Albania, the appellant did so, not because she had been persecuted for her sexuality or because she had been the subject of domestic violence, but because she feared being married against her will.