Collette and her Children's Case

“This story was provided via Human Rights and Equalities. Names and some details have been changed for anonymity.”

Collette is a mother of four children. Her youngest child has Downs Syndrome .

Collette is a lesbian who fled persecution from Jamaica for her sexual orientation.  

She describes how she sought to hide her identity in Jamaica by living with a man who was abusive to her and that she eventually fell in love with a local woman but their relationship came to light resulting in her being physically and verbally attacked and her needing to flee to safety with her children.

In Jamaica, the law criminalizes same-sex relationships, punishable by up to 10 years in prison with hard labour, and there are no legal protections against discrimination for LGBTQ+ people. While a 2021 ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found Jamaica in violation of international law and urged decriminalization, the government has not implemented these changes, and a constitutional "savings law clause" prevents courts from challenging these discriminatory laws.

Collette  joined a church in the UK and when her sexual identity became known to the church she was put through an exorcism to rid her of her Lesbian demon they said but when she confessed  to the Bishop of the church that her same sex attraction was still present, she was asked to leave.

She joined another congregation in a different area. She was after this the subject of racist attacks in the neighbourhood she had been placed in and was frightened to leave her home. I (Chrissy Meleady, Human Rights and Equalities) was fighting her immigration case and sought help from her church but they had found out that she was a lesbian and the church pastor condemned me for helping Colette and her children and said to me that she as the pastor would not help this woman and certainly would not help her children, calling her children, ‘the spawn of the devil’.  

Collette and her children have secured their stay here in the UK and their lives are now thriving.

The children at the time of the abuses were left traumatised as was their mother and it’s taken a long time for them to come through their experiences.