Abderrahim El Habachi, a gay asylum seeker from Morocco, has spoken out against the UK Home Office’s lack of support for LGBTQ+ immigrants, saying he felt more afraid arriving in the UK than he did in his native country, where same-sex relations are punishable by up to three years imprisonment. The 28-year-old writer and actor, who applied for asylum in 2017, previously told ITV News about his experiences in Morocco: “If you show your true colours it means that you are going to face the most discriminatory behaviour and homophobia…If people sense that you are gay, they can beat you – and you have no right to complain.”
He added: “You are the victim at that moment but in the eyes of the law, you are the criminal because you are gay.” However, after arriving in the Wales, Habachi was left feeling even more unsafe due to being housed with men who subjected him to homophobic abuse, telling the BBC: “I had fled a country that was dangerous for me, because of who I am, and I was put in an environment that felt more dangerous than the situation that I left…I felt so unsafe and vulnerable, I thought I would come here and be able to embrace myself but instead I was feeling very insecure.”
Hibachi’s temporary housing was provided by the National Asylum Support Service, but he said more needs to be done by authorities to support LGBTQ+ immigrants: “It was as though there was no effort to make LGBTQ+ people welcome, the drop-in centres for asylum seekers and refugees weren’t LGBTQ+ friendly, they were mainly aimed towards cis men. I was made to feel unwelcome.” In addition to being housed in unsafe accommodation, Hibachi said his application interview with the UK Home Office was ‘traumatic and intrusive’: “This added so much more pressure to the interview. Was I saying the right thing? Was I giving enough detail? From a life in Morocco, where I was pretending to not be gay in order to avoid any issues, I was now having to openly talk about my homosexuality in great detail, something I wasn’t comfortable with.”
His initial application was ultimately rejected, with authorities deciding Morocco was a safe country for LGBTQ+ people. Hibachi strongly disagreed: “I have been persecuted as a gay man in the country, so for them to say I can go back and live openly as a gay man is ridiculous.”
A spokesperson from the UK Home Office has insisted LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are given sufficient support, saying: “We provide LGBTQ+ asylum seekers with details for a range of organisations which can provide support from the point of their claim. We also require our accommodation providers to take account of any circumstances and vulnerability, with two of them offering designated accommodation for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.”
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