Skip to main content
British Red Cross
DONATE
  • Back
  • Get help
    • Get help
    • Coronavirus
    • Hire a wheelchair
    • Hire a toilet aid
    • Support at home
    • Help with loneliness
    • Find missing family
    • Help for refugees
    • Help for young refugees
    • Help with money problems
    • Prepare for emergencies
    • Help for victims of terrorism abroad
  • Get involved
    • Get involved
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Fundraising and events
    • Partner with us
    • Coronavirus
    • Teaching resources
    • Jobs
  • First aid
    • First aid
    • Learn first aid skills
    • Baby and child first aid
    • Do a first aid course
    • Find a first aid venue
    • Teach first aid
    • Buy a first aid kit
  • About us
    • About us
    • What we do
    • How we're run
    • What we stand for
    • News
    • Our history
    • Contact us
  • Shop
    • Shop
    • Find a charity shop
    • Donate goods
    • Volunteer in our shops
    • Furniture and electrics
    • Independent living products
    • Books
    • Wedding dresses
    • Vintage and designer clothes
    • Gift shop
    • Visit our eBay shop
    • Our ASOS vintage shop
  • Stories
    • Stories
    • Health and social care
    • Migration and displacement
    • Disasters and emergencies
    • Our Movement

Isabella's story: fears of deportation to a homophobic father - or why immigration detention needs to change 

When Isabella sought safety in the UK, she found despair instead. She spent two sleepless weeks in a detention centre, in constant fear of being deported – and dreading a future in which an arranged marriage would ‘cure’ her sexuality.


As a lesbian, Isabella faces restrictive laws and prejudices in her birth country, Namibia, not least from her own father.

“My father believes that if I sleep with a man, I will be ‘cured’ of my sexuality,” Isabella said. She is afraid that if she returns home, her father will force her into an arranged marriage.

Isabella came to the UK in October 2017 to claim asylum. Since then, she has become an active member of the LGBT+ community in Glasgow, where she lives.

But Isabella’s life was plunged into uncertainty when her asylum claim was refused last year

Isabella-at-Pride

sabella, right, and her friend Joyce at Pride in Glasgow

All asylum seekers in the UK must report to the Home Office regularly. It was during one of these visits that she found her claim had been refused.

When she arrived at the Home Office to report, Isabella was put into immigration detention.

Asylum seekers can be detained while the authorities verify someone’s identity or work on their claim.

It seems straightforward, but the Home Office can place people in immigration detention centres with no warning and for any amount of time. People often have no idea when they will be released.

I HAD TO LEAVE MY FAMILY, MY COUNTRY AND MY LIFE BECAUSE OF MY SEXUALITY.
ISABELLA, VOICES NETWORK AMBASSADOR

 

“I was terrified,” Isabella said. “I had no idea what was happening.”

‘I came here to be safe but instead I was locked up in detention but did not commit any crime.”

British Red Cross research on detention found that it has a bad effect on asylum seekers’ mental health. Sadly, this often continued after they were released.

 

Living in constant fear

Isabella was held in detention for two weeks. She felt constant fear and confusion as she “did not know when or how this torture would end.”

Her mental health deteriorated and she met women there who were “very vulnerable and mentally unwell,” and should never have been detained.

A constant fear of being deported back to the very place where she faces persecution meant Isabella was unable to eat or sleep in detention.

“I have a friend who was deported back to Namibia because she could not provide enough evidence for her asylum claim,” Isabella said.

“I felt so alone and dead inside there.”

Isabella had minimal contact with the outside world while in detention. Her partner, Anna, came to visit her and, “Anna’s support kept me going,” she said.

Friends from the LGBT+ community group in Glasgow also visited to give her their support.

 

Free but poverty-stricken

Finally, she was allowed to leave detention but was left in complete poverty. “I had no money, no home and no support,” Isabella said.

“I thought the pain was over, but in some ways, it was only just beginning.”

To help her deal with all these challenges, Isabella joined the Red Cross’ Voices Network and became a Voices Ambassador.

She is one of many ‘experts-by-experience’ within the Voices Network. Together, they work to end the use of indefinite detention in the UK.

Isabella must still regularly report to the Home Office in Glasgow, where she is at increased risk of being detained.

“For that whole week, I feel sick with fear in case they make me go through that again.”

#EveryRefugeeMatters – join our community of refugee champions

The Red Cross is the UK’s largest provider of refugee services, helping 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers last year. We also speak up for refugees’ rights.

People can now stand with us and with refugees on our new Facebook page, #EveryRefugeeMatters.

This new community of refugee champions can help people like Isabella to improve their own and other refugees’ lives.

Too many of people, like Isabella, came to the UK for safety but found fear.

Now, we want this to change. Will you join us?

  • #EveryRefugeeMatters: join our Facebook community
  • Read our report on immigration detention

Every refugee matters to us

We work with refugees and people seeking asylum to help them feel safe, live with dignity and build a new life. If, like us, you believe that every refugee matters, get involved by donating below.

Donate

We use cookies to make your experience of our website better. Our cookies policy explains what cookies are and how we use them. Please indicate whether you consent to us using cookies.

Yes, I consent No, I want to find out more
  • CONTACT US
  • JOBS
  • SITEMAP
  • CYMRAEG
  • LOGIN

  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Accessibility
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

©2021 British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society, incorporated by Royal Charter 1908, is a charity registered in England and Wales (220949), Scotland (SC037738) and Isle of Man (0752).

Registered with Fundraising Regulator