Ayslum seekers cite fears over homophobia in their claims

ONE in five people seeking asylum in the UK from Pakistan over the past two years cited their sexual orientation in their claim, new statistics show.

Between July 2015 and March this year there were more than 5,000 asylum claims lodged from Pakistani nationals, with 1,000 citing sexual orientation as the basis, or part of the basis, for their claim.

Pakistani nationals submitted the highest number of claims in which sexual orientation was referred to, almost one third of the overall total.

However, almost three quarters of all the claimants were turned down.

The other nationalities with the highest number of asylum claims where sexual orientation was cited were Bangladesh with 454 applications and Nigeria with 362.

The nationality with the highest proportion of claims based on sexual orientation was Uganda with 257 out of the total number of asylum claims of 382 – close to 70 per cent.

The data, published by the Home Office, show that an estimated six per cent of all asylum claims are made on the basis of sexual orientation. Three quarters of all the claims were refused. A total of 3,535 asylum claims based on sexual orientation were made to the UK over the period between 2015 and 2017.