Supreme Court: Jamaica Generally Unsafe for Gay Community
R (Brown (Jamaica)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] UKSC 8 (4 March 2015) The Home Secretary’s appeal to the Supreme Court, in relation to whether Jamaica should be included on the list of states designated in section 94(4) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (NIAA), was finally dismissed last week. Lady Hale, Lord Sumption, Lord Carnwath, Lord Hughes and Lord Toulson held that since homosexual, bisexual and transsexual persons living in Jamaica were at risk of persecution because of their sexual orientation, the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully by designating Jamaica, under section 94(5)(a) of the NIAA, as a state in which there is in general no serious risk of persecution of persons who are entitled to reside there. Back in June 2013, the Court of Appeal (Pill, Moore-Bick [dissenting] and Black LJJ, see here ) held by majority that since it was not in dispute that homosexuals were routinely persecuted in Jamaica it was...