Former El Salvador resident, 29-year-old Mx Arthur Britney Joestar, is the first person to have been granted asylum in the UK on the grounds of being non-binary. The landmark case is the first instance in which the Upper Tribunal court, which handles immigration and asylum cases, explicitly ruled that those at risk being persecuted of their non-binary or gender diverse identity can seek asylum in the UK.
The judge of the case said: “The appellant has already left El Salvador once because they could not tolerate the treatment that they endured there; now that they believe themselves to be far more vulnerable to attack it seems likely to me that they would feel compelled to modify their behaviour, including their political and social activism, to live ‘discreetly’. Having had regard to the country background evidence, and the evidence personally relating to the appellant, I am satisfied that they would do so for no reason other than a fear of persecution. It follows that… the appeal must be allowed.”
Joestar, who is now living in Liverpool, came to the UK in October 2017 to escape daily abuse in their home country. They spoke to The Guardian about their experiences as a queer person in El Salvador: “Non-binary people are in so much danger – I’ve seen corpses. Anything could have happened to me. I could have been tortured, raped, shot, killed.” They were also attacked by local police: “I’m not sure what was worse – the attack or when I was just left there and no one came to help me. I had a lot of bruises, my arms were bleeding and I was crying. But no one cared. It was really terrifying.”
They expressed their joy at being granted asylum in the UK, saying: “The way the judge handled the case: she just understood me – all the tiny details … she saw the whole picture. At the end, she turned to look at me and started speaking to me in Spanish, to tell me she granted me the right to stay in this country and the right to be who I want to be. I just started to cry. I felt like I was born again.”
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