Gay refuses to return to Uganda

Sep 15, 2008

A Ugandan gay asylum seeker, John Bosco Nyombi, on Sunday refused to board a plane at Gatwick Airport to be deported back to Uganda.

By Vision Reporter

A Ugandan gay asylum seeker, John Bosco Nyombi, on Sunday refused to board a plane at Gatwick Airport to be deported back to Uganda.

Nyombi, 38, refused to get on the flight because he believes he could face death if he is forced to return to Uganda where homosexuality is illegal and carries a punishment of life imprisonment.

Nyombi has spent seven years in the UK and local churches have taken up his case.

Nyombi was arrested on Tuesday last week after signing in with immigration officials at Portsmouth Central police station – a requirement while he is in the UK.

He was taken into custody after his last appeal was refused. Nyombi was due to board a 6:40am flight to Uganda but he refused and staff at the airport accepted his decision.

Church officials in Portsmouth heard that Nyombi had avoided being forced on to the flight and were trying to make contact with him to find out what was going on.

Campaigners have been trying to save Nyombi from being sent back to Uganda where they fear he will be persecuted because of his sexuality.

Neil Pugmire, a spokesman from the Diocese of Portsmouth, said: “I received a telephone call from John on a landline in Gatwick Airport telling me he had refused to get on the plane and that they had accepted that decision.

“He is still being held at Gatwick Airport. I imagine that the immigration services are looking for a detention centre that they can take him to. That, we hope, will buy us some time for his solicitor to take some legal action – an injunction or a judicial review.”

A number of friends, work colleagues and campaigners went to the airport yesterday to protest Nyombi’s forced departure.

Colleagues at Stonham Housing Association, where he has worked almost since his arrival, launched a campaign and a petition, which they plan to send to the Home Office.

Michael Woolley, the coordinator of the Haslar Visitors’ Group that represents the interests of asylum seekers, said: “The way these arrests are carried out is disgraceful, without any chance to put affairs in order.

“John has signed regularly at a police station for years, and there is no reason to think he would abscond. Yet he was given no notice, no opportunity to pack a bag, to say goodbye to his friends or to sell his car.”

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