Ghanaian Bisexual Refused Asylum in UK

While homophobic politics and violence are rising across Africa and are entrenched elsewhere, the UK is at a critical juncture. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people seek asylum in the UK, but until now many have been sent back to countries where they are persecuted, and told to be discreet.

One of them is Baffour Obeng, a bisexual man is booked on a British Airways flight back to Ghana on Sunday.

Baffour, 23, fled his home country with his father and brother because of a chieftaincy dispute. They both abandoned him when they found out he had a relationship with a man and he was arrested in Barking, east London, in March for being in the UK illegally. Baffour has received a written warning that he will be in danger if he returns to Ghana because, he said, "the secret is out".

In Ghana homosexuality is illegal. A human rights report by the US state department, published in March, said: "LGBT persons face widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts." Only last week thousands of people marched on the city of Sekondi-Takoradi in an anti-gay protest.

Baffour believes he will be killed if he returns. The Home Office admitted to him that in Ghana there would be "no protection available if you were to experience problems on account of your sexuality".

He has been told he can live safely if he moves to another part of Ghana – but this means keeping his sexuality hidden and running the risk of word spreading. Baffour said: "If I go somewhere else, someone will see me."

The UK Border Agency maintains that "the independent courts found that the claim was totally without merit".

But Baffour was put into a fast-track system, which aims to deport people from "safe" countries as quickly as possible. The Stonewall report No Going Back last month condemned the use of fast-tracking for LGBT asylum seekers "because it takes time to produce evidence about a reason for claiming that is secret and that there is no public evidence for". Baffour has been denied the time or legal help to put his case.

The judges and the Home Office must act quickly to amend a system which routinely fails to provide sanctuary for these vulnerable people, forcing them to suppress themselves and become complicit in the very bigotry they flee.