Cameroonian Lesbian Refused Asylum in Spain after Authorities Label her Story ‘Not Credible’
By Editor
As people within the LGBTI community in Africa continue to seek asylum in overwhelming numbers, Western nations have made the process of granting asylum harder and some have even been turned down. The latest of these is 28 year old Christelle Nangnou from Cameroon.
Like most homosexual asylum seekers, Nangnou says that her life will be in danger if she returns to her home in Yaounde Cameroon where homosexuality is considered a crime.
Countless LGBTI asylum seekers have been turned down due to the increased number of fraudulent cases that have marred the process in the past. Many people claiming to be homosexual have immigrated to western countries and some still seeking asylum, have shown high levels of indiscipline; something that has put western nations on guard and forced them to disregard the requests for asylum.
Most Western states have resorted to assuring most asylum seekers to do what they consider logical- stay home and lead a quiet life without drawing any unnecessary attention to ones sexuality.
According to a study done in 2011, a woman from West Africa was reprimanded by a Hungarian court. “If she would not make her lesbianism public, she would not have to fear the consequences of her behavior,” the court is quoted as having said.
Ms. Nangou explains that she managed to keep her sexuality a secret until police raided her home. It was this raid that gave her secret away to her family and community. People that have remained in the closet also face a harder time in being granted asylum as most countries argue that granting asylum based on gender identity or sexual orientation that has stayed secret is a troubling idea that does not appear genuine.
Their biggest fear for such cases is the fact that they cannot be sure if the stories presented to them are genuine or fraudulent as they have seen in the recent past.
Ms Nangnou who arrived in Spain on 25th March after using someone else’s identification and travel documents now has until April 17 when her lawyer Eduardo Gomez Cuadrado is expected to present a better cases since her initial story was not credible enough, according to the authorities.
Gomez has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to step in and block the 28 year old’s repatriation from Spain.
