HIV-Positive Ugandan Fears Deportation

A gay and HIV-positive Ugandan man facing deportation from the U.K. fears for his life if returned to the African country and is seeking a last-minute reprieve.

London's Guardian reports on Jamal Ali Said, 40, who will be forcibly returned to Uganda next week after repeated appeals have failed. The U.K. Border Agency has not accepted that he is gay despite his attendance to a gay support group for more than one year.

Homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison in Uganda, but a bill pending in parliament would impose the death penalty in instances including the transmission of HIV through sex.

"Speaking from Campsfield detention centre in Oxfordshire, Said said he was 'very frightened' based on 'how they treat you in Uganda if you have HIV, if you are a gay man.' He had separated from his most recent partner, he said, who had returned to another African country which he declined to name," the Guardian reported.

Late last month, Brenda Namigadde, a Ugandan lesbian on the verge of deportation from the U.K., was granted a temporary reprieve after an international outcry. The government had ruled there was insufficient evidence she is a lesbian. Her appeal will be heard Monday.