'Criminal offence to be gay in Jamaica' says British newspaper

Thursday, March 18, 2004

SHEFFIELD, England: In a report about an asylum seeker who claims she was persecuted in Jamaica for being a lesbian faces deportation from Britain, The Star says the 39-year-old mother of four faces being sent back to Jamaica where, the paper claims, it is a criminal offence to be gay.

Jamaican-born Sandra Espeut says she was targeted by thugs in her home country because of her sexuality.

But the British Home Office says it does not believe she is a lesbian - because she has had four children and a string of relationships with men.

Sandra, who has been living in Britain since 2000, still bears scars which she claims are from vicious beatings she received in Jamaica. She claims she even ended up in hospital after being beaten with planks by five youths.

Sandra said: "My girlfriend and I couldn't go out in the streets because they would shout 'We're going to kill you'. People used to beat us on the road. 

"They threw hot water on my back and poured acid on my legs. I had to stay in hospital for a year."

She added: "When I first applied for asylum, they refused me and said they didn't believe I was a lesbian. They said if I was, I should have left Jamaica long ago."

Sandra, who said she only began relationships with men in a bid to hide her sexuality, added: "I had to put myself with a man to cover myself from the beating." Nearly four years ago she left Jamaica and was joined shortly afterwards by her children, now aged four, seven, 11 and 21. 

Two appeals have been refused and she and her children may now be deported within weeks. A tribunal ruling by an immigration official who turned down her appeals read: "While I accept that homosexuals (at least men) do enter heterosexual relationships to conceal their sexuality, the appellant seems to have done so to an extraordinary degree."

The judgment added: "I do not find it credible that a lesbian, entering into a relationship to conceal her sexuality, would remain in the relationship for such a lengthy period of time or would enter into so many relationships, or would risk getting pregnant."

The ruling added that one relationship with a man lasted two years - and said Sandra could just move out of her native town of Kingston to escape the thugs rather than emigrating to England. 

But Chrissy Meleady, support advocate at the Sheffield Women's Centre, which is attended by Sandra's younger children, said: "The kids are all really settled. They have been living in Sheffield for years. 

"If Sandra is thrown out they will have to go too.

"It is not fair on them. We would urge the Home Office to reconsider."

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