Trans refugee who fled death threats in Pakistan ‘angry’ at Suella Braverman over speech
A transgender refugee who fled Pakistan to the UK after threats to her life has hit out at Suella Braverman for claiming gay people who escape discrimination should not automatically be granted refugee status.
Hiba, 29, sought asylum in Britain when her brother was killed by a mob in 2018 after protecting her from anti-LGBT extremists. She said the Home Secretary’s comments had left her “angry”.
Ms Braverman has faced a backlash from senior Conservatives, and been accused of launching a “dog whistle” attack on gay refugees that will cost the party LGBT votes, after she said the UN Refugee Convention should be toughened up to exclude gay people and women from getting refugee status if they face “discrimination”.
A filmmaker, Hiba received death threats after refusing to work at a conference including a former ally of Osama bin Laden and others who advocated killing transgender people.
After her brother was killed, Hiba said doctors refused to give her mother cancer treatment because she was a transgender woman.
Hiba told i: “They killed my brother. My brother’s vehicle was totally Ok, but every single part of his body was broken. And the police said, ‘No, it’s a road accident.’
“The doctor of my mum received a threatening call that you cannot treat a transgender woman’s mum, it’s a sin.
“My mum’s cancer was in its first stage and they denied treatment and a liver transplant. The doctor told me, ‘They’re going to kill me, I can’t do anything.’ And then they left my mum to die.
“Then they started threatening me and said, ‘We are looking at the hospital and if you come here, and if you attend her we will kill you.’ I couldn’t go to my mum’s funeral.”
She later found out her brother and mother’s graves were bulldozed by extremists who said burying them in a Muslim graveyard was a sin.
After going into hiding, Hiba told how she was kidnapped and beaten twice and threatened with mutilation.
She arrived in the the UK in 2021, but waited more than two years for her asylum claim to be processed – knowing she would be killed if sent back to Pakistan – until she was granted refugee status a few weeks ago.
But even after reaching Britain she received a WhatsApp message saying she would be tracked down and killed in London.
Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC on Tuesday, Ms Braverman said: “There are vast swathes of the world where it is extremely difficult to be gay, or to be a woman. Where individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary.
“But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection”.
Hiba said: “After this statement, I was feeling it is better that I was killed in my country. My LGBTQ people are suffering through these comments.
“I feel really, really angry. I feel really down. If you slap me maybe I will forget one day, but your words are more harsh.”
At least seven transgender women were killed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in 2022, according to Human Rights Watch, with Hiba saying dozens have been murdered in the last six months.
The Home Secretary insisted it was not “racist” nor “illiberal” to seek reforms of human rights laws, as she called for the UN Refugee Convention to be toughened up to exclude gay people and women from getting refugee status if they fear “discrimination”.
Hiba added: “So many countries like Pakistan, like Uganda, and the Middle East, they are ruling against LGBTQ people.
“How can you say that transgender or the LGBTQI community cannot get protection? She’s playing with our emotions. She’s considering that we are not human beings.
“They killed my mum, they killed my brother. If I go back to my country they’re going to kill me. After her statement, to be honest, even though I’m granted [asylum], me and my community don’t feel safe.
“ The compassion, the love, the humanitarian grounds we’ve always seen from Britain she put in the river.”
Government data shows there were 1,024 initial decisions made on lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum applications in 2022, with 72 per cent successful.
But there are no equivalent figures showing the number of trans applicants seeking refugee status.
Steve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais said: “Targeting the small number of LGBTQI+ refugees who come to the UK would do nothing to fix any of the problems in our asylum system, but it would leave those refugees facing persecution and even execution in their home country because of their sexuality or gender.
“Braverman is not only putting LGBTQI+ refugees’ lives at risk with this rhetoric, but her comments are also completely ignorant of how the refugee convention works. Claiming asylum as an LGBTQI+ refugee is not easy.
“It is a deeply invasive experience as our system places the onus on them to ‘prove’ their sexuality or gender and that, as a result, they face a genuine risk of persecution at home.”
