Jd (Homosexual – Mdc Supporter – Internal Relocation)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | ANDREW JORDAN,VICE PRESIDENT |
| Judgment Date | 17 September 2004 |
| Neutral Citation | [2004] UKIAT 259 |
| Court | Immigration Appeals Tribunal |
| Date | 17 September 2004 |
[2004] UKIAT 259
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Mr Andrew Jordan (Vice President)
Ms C. St Clair
Mr S.S. Percy
For the Appellant: Ms M. Plimmer, counsel instructed by South Manchester Law Centre
For the Respondent: Mr J. Wyatt, Home Office Presenting Officer
JD (homosexual — MDC supporter — internal relocation) Zimbabwe
The Appellant is a citizen of Zimbabwe who appeals against the determination of an Adjudicator, Mr D. M. Brunnen, promulgated on 27 October 2003, dismissing the Appellant's appeal against the decision of the Secretary of State to refuse both her asylum and human rights claims.
The Appellant was born on 23 October 1980 and is 23 years old. She arrived in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2002 on a flight from South Africa using her own passport and was granted six months leave to enter as a visitor. One week before the expiration of her leave, the Appellant applied for asylum. The Secretary of State refused her asylum claim and made a decision on 6 September 2002 refusing her application for variation of her leave to enter or remain. This decision gave rise to a right of appeal under section 69(2) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The Appellant gave notice of appeal on 10 September 2002.
The Appellant is a lesbian and claimed to fear return to Zimbabwe both because of her sexual orientation and as a result of her involvement with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The Appellant is an only child who, after the separation of her parents and the remarriage of her mother, went to live with her grandmother. When her grandmother died in 1998, the Appellant went to live with her uncle who lived in Harare. In October 2000, she formed a sexual relationship with another young woman, Ms Moyo. A conversation between the two of them was overheard and the Appellant was only permitted to remain in her uncle's house under strict supervision. Ms Moyo was a member of the MDC and the Appellant joined that organisation in November 2000. The Appellant attended three MDC rallies, two of them in the company of Ms Moyo. At a rally on 26 December 2001, supporters of Zanu PF attempted to disrupt the meeting. In the ensuing violence, the Appellant was assaulted by police officers, arrested and detained for two weeks. She was questioned about her involvement with the MDC. Eventually, her uncle arranged for her release. Upon her release, supporters of Zanu PF came to her uncle's house. A stone was thrown through one of the windows. The Appellant was subjected to taunts over her sexuality.
The Appellant went by coach to South Africa on 11 January 2002 and flew to the United Kingdom four days later. On arrival in the United Kingdom, she went to stay with her aunt.
The Adjudicator found the Appellant to be an open and honest witness. Although the Secretary of State in his refusal letter had raised doubts as to the Appellant's credibility, those matters were considered by the Adjudicator who concluded that the Appellant retained her credibility. In paragraph 17 of the determination, the Adjudicator expressly finds that the Appellant's evidence was truthful.
The Adjudicator, however, examined the nature of the Appellant's claim. Taken at its highest, he considered the Appellant to be a low-level supporter of the MDC. She could not properly be described as an activist or a leader and had only attended three or four rallies.
The Adjudicator had before him a report by Mr Matyszak which he regarded as well researched, well balanced and reliable. He noted that lesbian acts were not regarded as criminal although the political leaders have made virulently homophobic remarks. There is widespread condemnation against homosexuality, often viewed as a product of western values and, therefore, in opposition to the Zimbabwe government. The Appellant is a Shona. Homosexuality, it is said, undermines traditional kinship, highly valued by the Shona, rendering it impossible for a black rural Zimbabwean woman to adopt a lesbian lifestyle. Even in an urban environment, it would be very difficult.
Having considered the report of Mr Matyszak, the Adjudicator concluded that the Appellant was not at risk of ill-treatment of sufficient severity to amount to persecution or a violation of her Article 3 rights. Mr Matyszak had suggested that it was possible for lesbians to adopt “a position of invisibility”; in essence, concealing their sexual orientation to an extent that it remained private, or largely so. The Adjudicator did not consider that a restriction on the Appellant's ability to express her sexual orientation in this way imposed a limitation on the Appellant's freedom sufficiently severe to engage Articles 3 or 8 of the European Convention.
The Appellant appealed. The grounds of appeal challenge the Adjudicator's assessment that the Appellant's account did not disclose persecution or Article 3 ill-treatment sufficient to the purposes of Article 3 and was in error in his assessment of risk on return both as a result of her involvement with the MDC and because she is lesbian.
In his report, Mr Matyszak refers to the homophobic utterances by members of the Zimbabwe leadership. He also refers to the link that is drawn between western standards and homosexuality. At page 9 of his report, we find:
“The discourse and the milieu outlined above has exacerbated an already difficult situation for the lesbians in two ways. Firstly, lesbian and gays are held up as the epitome of the evil that results from adopting western lifestyles. They are people who, in the eyes of the present government, show by their very identity that they have thrown in their lot with “the enemy”. Homosexuality is portrayed in the State controlled media as foreign and as non-existent in unadulterated Shona society… Being gay or lesbian, to supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party, immediately connotes that individual as a person hostile to Mugabe's Zanu PF party, as someone who represents an incarnation of the intrusion of western values which Mugabe professes to abhor and the embodiment elements seen to constitute Zimbabwe's enemies.”
This same report speaks of physical violence:
“Physical violence against gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe is not endemic or systematic. In this regard, despite the homophobic environment, instances of physical gay bashing are less frequent than in many jurisdictions where homosexual relationships are formally recognised. However, sporadic instances of physical violence have been recorded by GALZ and tend to occur when some event has raised the profile of gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe. Such violence that there has been has largely been directed against gay men. This is most probably due to the greater invisibility of lesbians. Several black lesbians whose sexual orientation has become public have been subjected to violence.”
The report concludes:
“Clearly, a hostile climate exists in Zimbabwe as far as lesbians are concerned. The impact of this hostility in some cases is specific to the individual. An openly and overtly lesbian woman is very likely to face some sort of persecution of one form or another. The government provides an ideological structure conducive to persecution and even encourages it in some instances. However, the extreme hostility of the climate forces most lesbians to adopt a position of invisibility. Their reduced...
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