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Convicted class-A supplier makes human rights plea against forced return to 'most homophobic place on Earth'
'The most homophobic place on earth'
Jamaican lesbian drug dealer fights deportation
A 24 year-old Jamaican convicted drug dealer, known as 'A' for legal reasons, has appealed against her deportation on the grounds that her life would be in danger if she returned there.
The Court of Appeal heard yesterday that she had a boyfriend before her conviction in 2005 for supplying class-A drugs, but had had several female lovers in prison and is now in love with a fellow inmate.
Her legal case is that deportation to Jamaica would be a violation of her rights to life, freedom of expression, a private life and freedom from discrimination, but the Home Office argued that the relationship was not genuine, merely a ploy to fight her deportation order and that her lesbian relationships were the consequence of being in an exclusively same-sex environment. Carine Patry Hoskins, for the Home Office, said that it "did not accept" that her current relationship was genuine.
The Home Office also argued that as her alleged girlfriend is also Jamaican (whom the Court of Appeal heard 'A' met while they were both inmates at Downview, Surrey) they could return to the island and set up home together. 'A' said that in Jamaica she faces potential murder by criminal gangs because of her sexuality. Her barrister, S Chelvan, claimed that the Home Office had withdrawn two concessions it made before her asylum appeal was heard: that it accepted that she was in a lesbian relationship and that she would be "at risk" in Jamaica. He described the Home Office's actions as a "public disgrace" and said that it had "undermined public confidence" in the immigration system.
Many gay rights organisations consider Jamaica, where male homosexuality is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, to be the 'most homophobic place on Earth', and have frequently called for the boycotting of its exports and tourist trade. Opposition leader and now Jamaican prime minister Bruce Golding promised in April 2006 that any cabinet formed by him would be one where homosexuals "would find no solace."
Most notoriously, some Jamaican Reggae musicians, including Shabba Ranks, Beenie Man and Bounty Killer, have released songs calling for violent and murderous attacks on homosexuals, as in the case of Buju Banton, whose Boom Bye-Bye boasts of machine-gunning gays and burning them with acid.
