Refugee who was ‘raped and beaten’ after deportation marks Rwanda as ‘death sentence’ plan

June 14, 2022, 06:56 | Updated: June 14, 2022, 07:35

A Ugandan refugee told LBC she was raped and beaten after being deported to her home country from the UK.

Prossy Nakalinzi, 29, fled Uganda, a country bordering Rwanda, to the UK in 2009.

She feared her life was in danger because of her sexuality and had previously suffered brutal attacks simply for being gay.

She moved to London, but in 2013 immigration officers came to her house in the middle of the night and told her she had stayed too long.

She was forced to hand over her passport and detained at Yarl’s Wood, Bedford. Later that year, she was sent back to Uganda.

She told LBC: “I was dumped in Uganda with nothing. I spent five years in hiding because people wanted me dead. They don’t allow us to be lesbian or gay in Uganda.

“They can enter your community, they can attack you, they can kill you.”

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Prossy told LBC she now has a three-year-old son, fathered by a rapist who assaulted her after she was deported from the UK to Uganda. A judge ruled she could return to the UK in 2019.

She and her son have now successfully applied for asylum in London.

Speaking to LBC while protesting the British government’s controversial migration policy in Rwanda, Prossy said she feared LGBTQ+ refugees deported to Rwanda could face a worse situation.

She said, “Rwanda is my neighbor country and I know that Rwanda has no democracy.

“Taking refugees there is a real disaster – it’s like taking them to a killing zone, condemning them to death.

“Torture and death. They won’t be safe.”

Asked how she felt about the British government, following the abuse she faced on her return to Rwanda, Prossy said: “Really, I blame them for everything I face. now. I blame them. They kept saying I’m lying, lying, lying.

“I was here [Britain] for two years but I didn’t really know how to apply for asylum, nobody really said that.

“I was just trying to get to know the country and live my life, but I didn’t know what to do next. They told me I stayed too long, so I’m a criminal, which I didn’t really understood.”

“In order for me to sleep and live today, I now have to take medicine. Sleeping pills and medicine to calm my stress. They have damaged my brain and my life.”

A government spokesperson told LBC: “Rwanda is a fundamentally safe country that is recognized globally for its record in welcoming and integrating migrants. It is illegal to discriminate against anyone in Rwanda, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and we now have a memorandum of understanding that both parties have pledged to uphold.”

“Each case is assessed individually, and no one will be relocated if it would be unsafe or inappropriate for them to do so.”