Home Office Accused of Failing to Protect Vulnerable LGBT+ People in Immigration Detention

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The Home Office has been accused of failing to protect vulnerable LGBT+ people in immigration detention, in contravention of their own guidelines.

Rainbow Migration, a charity which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the asylum and immigration system, found that not one of the seven immigration removal centres across the UK had strategies in place for staff to monitor or challenge homophobic behaviour. 

The charity also found that the Government had not conducted any analyses of the prevalence of incidents across the detention estate. Four IRCs had failed to make any explicit reference to sexual orientation or gender identity in its anti-bullying information. 

Home Office guidelines state that information about bullying and harassment must be displayed in a variety of languages where staff, detainees and visitors can see it. Each IRC must also include specified content on homophobia. 

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Around 70 countries worldwide criminalise same-sex relations, some with the death penalty, meaning that significant numbers odf asylum applications come from persecuted LGBT+ people.

“We know that immigration detention is unsafe and harmful for LGBT+ people,” said Ayesha Aziz, Rainbow Migration’s Legal Service Manager.

“These are people who have fled family members or governments because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. They may have already been detained in their home country because of who they are. Now they are in Britain to seek protection and the Home Office knows about their backgrounds because they have claimed asylum on that basis, but they are not doing anything to protect them.”

Aziz points to the example of a South American man she visited at Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow, who was too fearful of being ‘outed’ to leave his cell.

Another man was isolated from the group by staff and told he needed to be checked for sexually-transmitted diseases. A third person reported being harassed for the way they dressed, experiencing suicidal thoughts and poor physical health due to stress and anxiety.

“We are seeing a significant uptick in the number of queries from LGBT+ people at IRCs due to the failures of the Home Office,” said Aziz. “In an ideal world, we would say no to all LGBT people in detention. There are alternatives which are cost-effective, safe and secure.” 

Rainbow Migration is calling for protections offered to trans and intersex people, who have been classed as ‘at risk of harm’ under the ‘Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention’ policy since 2016 and therefore should not usually be detained, extended to lesbian, gay and bisexual people. And for guidelines to be put in place for staff to ensure that vulnerable minority individuals are protected from homophobic abuse and attacks.

In June 2024, the charity, alongside Micro Rainbow, urged the Government to introduce a pilot scheme, which would allow vulnerable people in detention to be released and offered a place in Micro Rainbow’s safe house, with support from legal aid lawyers.

The UNHCR warns in its guidelines that special measures may be required to avoid exposing LGBTQI+ people to ‘risk of violence, ill-treatment or physical, mental or sexual abuse’. The guidelines state that where their security cannot be assured in detention, ‘release or referral to alternatives to detention would need to be considered.’

The Home Office guidelines state immigration detention should be used ‘sparingly, and for the shortest period necessary.’ 

The Home Office were contacted for comment.