Home Office ‘refuses to believe Kenyan asylum seeker is a lesbian’
A lesbian who left her daughters behind in Kenya amid death threats was refused asylum as the Home Office did not ‘believe’ she was gay.
Virginia Wairimu, 51, says she was attacked by two men while shopping with her children, aged 17 and five, in the east African nation in 2019. The men had caught Virginia and her partner being affectionate before.
‘You can run, you can hide,’ the men said, the mum-of-two told Metro. ‘But we’re not going to let you teach your daughters your satanic way of life.
‘You deserve to be eliminated.’
However, the Home Office refused her asylum claim – lodged in September 2019 – in early 2020. Officials said she hadn’t provided enough information to show she was lesbian and would be in danger if she returned to Kenya.
Appealing the decision, a judge told her she could ‘live anywhere in Kenya without fear’. Metro has not stated where Virginia has lived for her children’s’ safety.
A decision letter seen by Metro said: ‘I have found the appellant’s account relating to her sexuality and any risk of her sexuality as either inconsistent, incoherent or so implausible as to be capable of belief.
‘I therefore find that the appellant does not have a well-founded fear of persecution for a [European Convention on Human Rights] reason.’
Given her work as a travel consultant and the ‘breakdown of her marriage’ – with a man who Virginia said was abusive – the decision-maker said she could ‘relocate to other areas within Kenya’.
‘I also note from the previous determination that [the judge] also found that the appellant “can live anywhere without fear”,’ the letter added.
Virginia, who lives in charity accommodation in Bournville, a village four miles south of Birmingham, cannot open a bank account or get a job while her case is considered. She relies on welfare and food banks.
After launching the #WeAreVirginia campaign, 1,100 people have signed her Change.org petition to stay in the UK. Virginia, who is being supported by the charity Asylum Matters, is in the process of lodging another appeal to stay.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘It is long-standing government policy that we do not comment on individual cases.’
Under Kenya’s colonial-era penal code, being gay can be punishable by up to 21 years in prison. A bill proposed last year would up this to five decades – and death for so-called ‘aggravated homosexuality’.
Anti-gay views are widely held, with nearly seven in 10 Kenyans saying that homosexuality is not ‘justifiable’ in a 2022 poll.
And this includes Virginia’s parents, strict Christians who pressured her to marry. ‘I can’t remember a Sunday I ever missed church,’ she joked.
Aged 26, Virginia ‘gave in’ to marriage to please her family. Her husband, however, was ‘mentally, physically, sexually, everything’ abusive.
‘When my daughter was barely two years old, I couldn’t take it any more and I left,’ Virginia, who founded a travel agency in 2006, said.
She adopted a girl in 2014 and met her partner the following year. ‘We kept it very discrete. We pretended to be two friends,’ Virginia said. ‘We were just two ladies taking the kids out for my holiday.’
But at a party with her girlfriend, Virginia was outed as she bumped into former colleagues.
‘They said they had always suspected. They threw us out of the party and beat us up. We had to escape,’ she said.
‘This was frightening because I had seen the papers, lesbians being gang-raped to “cure” them. I was so worried about my children. I knew I had to leave.’
Virginia left her younger daughter with her mother – ‘I told my mum I’m going away on a “business trip”‘ – while her eldest stayed at boarding school.
After applying for a transit visa, used to pass through on the way to another country, Virginia arrived in the UK in May 2019. ‘I didn’t know I could claim asylum based on my sexuality. I just wanted to be as far away as possible from my attackers,’ she said.
In 2023, 1,377 people claimed asylum partly or solely on sexual orientation. Of them, 62% were granted protection.
To be granted asylum on the basis of sexuality, applicants must demonstrate they would face persecution if they are or perceived to be queer.
Home Office guidance says evidence is used to ‘make a balanced decision’. Caseworkers consider whether ‘there may be certain areas in the country of origin where the treatment of LBG individuals is better and would not amount to persecution’ and are advised against saying an applicant could be ‘discrete’ in their home country.
For Virginia, finding evidence wasn’t easy: ‘I never thought of leaving my country. I thought I would be discreet and nobody would ever find out.
‘I didn’t know I needed to document my life. All I have is my story… At the time, I was very traumatised. I couldn’t say anything.’
Virginia enlisted an interpreter when the Home Office interviewed her in November 2019. ‘I was not able to correct [my interpreter]. So my interview failed,’ she claimed.
‘We tried to appeal. It failed. Went to the tribunal, it failed. Even the wording of the decision they made was traumatising.
‘It’s almost like LGBTQ+ people are supposed to have something that identifies them. If you’re on a bus, do you know if the people sitting next to you are gay or lesbian just by looking at them?’
Asking LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to ‘prove’ who they are is ‘problematic’, Journey LGBT+ Asylum Group told Metro.
‘Most LGBTQ+ asylum seekers have been living a secret life in a country where their sexuality is, at best, taboo or, at worst, carries the death penalty,’ the West Midlands refugee support group said.
‘They’ve had to hide and have never talked about their relationships to anyone.
‘The events that prompted our members to flee to the UK are often extremely traumatic. Many need time to process and need support to feel comfortable talking about their past and to feel able to “come out”.’
Home Office interviewers have been found to rely on outdated stereotypes and ask ‘intrusive questions’. Journey claimed interpreters may ‘discriminate’ applicants.
Being granted safety in the UK would free Virginia of worry, she said. She might find love, study, work and reunite with her daughters.
‘”Mummy, why did you leave me?”‘ Virginia said her youngest asked her on a recent call. ‘”Do you not love me any more?”
‘I say I have a few issues to sort out when they ask when I’m coming home. She’s not big enough to understand.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.