UK Asylum System: The Continuation of a Colonial Legacy

We are not talking about an exaggeration, but a genuine human drama: A lesbian woman of Indian origin came to the UK on a student visa and, upon the expiration of her two-year graduate visa, considered applying for asylum to remain in the country. However, this application requires submitting a comprehensive statement to the Home Office containing highly intimate details regarding her sexual orientation. The woman is forced to provide evidence to prove her life story, relationships, and personal experiences, such as medical reports and witness statements from former partners or family members. The process carries a significant risk that compromises the applicant's privacy, because her life could be directly endangered if these personal details are learned by anyone in her home country. Furthermore, this system limits the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals with narrow and culturally Western-centric assumptions, ignoring the ways in which different cultures experience gender and sexuality.

This personal dilemma reveals the deeper and structural contradiction embedded within the UK's asylum system. While the UK claims to offer protection to people on the one hand, it simultaneously continues the historical colonial practices that form the basis of the very dangers these individuals are fleeing. The asylum system operates almost like a continuation of the British Empire's control mechanisms, reproducing racial, sexual, and gender inequalities. For instance, rules that prevent asylum seekers from working, condemning them to minimal financial support, evoke the historical practices of British colonialism that suppressed local industries and artisans in India. This situation demonstrates that the system is designed to drive people into a bottleneck rather than rescue them, acting as a modern manifestation of colonial oppression.

Looking at the historical context, it is evident that the British Empire normalized massive waves of migration in line with its own interests, expanding across the globe and exploiting resources. British rule in India resulted in the Partition of India and Pakistan (Partition), which also laid the foundation for the conflicts leading to Bangladesh's independence. It is known that during this process of forced nation-building and land division, approximately two million people lost their lives and millions were displaced. An analysis by the charity Refugee Action, based on the Home Office's 2024 statistics, reveals that approximately seventy percent of asylum applications made since 2001 come from countries that were former British colonies. Indian and Pakistani asylum seekers are currently among the top ten countries with the most asylum applications to the UK.

The effects of these historical tragedies extend far beyond the Partition of 1947 and continue to leave deep scars today. The process has created generational silence, regional conflicts, and trauma; like many elderly individuals born in the Indian subcontinent who are now 93 years old, people have personally experienced and internalized these painful events and the subsequent migration processes. The same trauma and silence are also carried by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and homosexual individuals seeking asylum in countries like the UK. In India, same-sex relations were considered illegal and punishable until 2018, leading to the suppression and marginalization of queer individuals for decades. Even today, these individuals have not fully attained the equal rights won following the anti-colonial struggle and have had to face additional challenges brought by cultural taboos.

The traces of colonial logic are clearly visible not only in the laws of the past, but also in contemporary parliamentary debates seen in areas such as trans rights in India, and in attempts to restrict these rights. The narrowing of gender definitions and the requirement for individuals to prove their identities only through medical board approval position trans individuals as criminals, almost like a modern version of the British 'Criminal Tribes Act' of 1871. In the pre-colonial era in India, the identities of trans, homosexual, and gender non-conforming individuals were not bound by such rigid rules, and these people did not live under intense state surveillance. To 'Westernize' the Indian subcontinent, the British imposed a rigid, hierarchical, and dogmatic system regarding sexuality and gender. Today, the UK Home Office demanding that people seeking asylum prove their own identities, transformations, and pasts is still a continuation of this old colonial impulse for control. The UK continues to maintain this domination over the people of the lands it once occupied, albeit in different guises.