The UK border agency plans to deport a gay woman to Uganda on Friday. Brenda Namigadde fled the country in 2003 after her relationship with another woman led to threats and the destruction of her home. She faces imprisonment upon her return.

Namigadde is currently being held in Yarl’s Wood detention centre. She was denied asylum in the UK after the UK Border Agency announced that there was not sufficient evidence to prove her sexuality.

It is likely that Namigadde will be arrested following her deportation. She says, “I’ll be tortured or killed if I’m sent back to Uganda. They’ve put people like me to death there. Most of my friends in Uganda have disappeared.”

Ugandan MP David Bahati, who is responsible for the anti-gay legislation currently going through the country’s parliament, has taken a special interest in the case. He says that Namigadde will be “welcome” in Uganda if she is prepared to “repent”: if not, she will be tried as a criminal.

An international coalition of LGBT activists is calling upon the Home Secretary Theresa May to halt the deportation. A model letter prepared by the campaign quotes May, who promised last July “to stop the removal of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution.”

A report released by the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group last year claimed that 98-99% of LGBT applicants fail to successfully claim asylum.

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