The government would do well to remember Britain’s commitment to human rights

Editorial: A gay woman who was attacked after being unlawfully deported to Uganda has won her court case against the Home Office. The danger now is the government will learn precisely the wrong lessons

A gay woman who was unlawfully deported to Uganda has won her case against the Home Office (Getty)

All too often, refugees are regarded as an amorphous, objectified, dehumanised “commodity”, a problem to be transported and disposed of, and by the authorities as much as the people traffickers.  

In reality, as the appalling case of PN we reported on makes clear, they are people, with their own stories and their own inalienable human rights. In PN’s case they also have voices and they are ready to speak up. PN has to remain anonymous for reasons that will be obvious.

Seven years ago, under the Home Office’s “fast track” procedure, PN was returned to Uganda. Officials did not believe that she was gay, and were oblivious to the persecution of gay people in Uganda (where same sex relationships are unlawful). She was bundled off to Kampala, and no doubt the ministers and the staff concerned thought they’d heard the last of her, as appeals are far more difficult to launch from abroad.