According to the APA, President of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh, who recently compared gays to ‘vermin' and ‘malaria-infected mosquitos' has accused Gambian citizens seeking asylum in the west of pretending to be gay so as to avoid having to return home:
“Some people go to the west and claim they are gays and that their lives are at risk in The Gambia, in order for them to be granted a stay in Europe. If I catch them I will kill them” the Gambian leader warned.
According to him, the British authorities have realized the untruthfulness of those claims which people used as a strategy to stay in Britain.
He said, the British have decided to conduct a test on travelers claiming to come from The Gambia and information to confirm their sexual orientation.
The “tests” Jammeh mentions may refer to reports that surfaced late last year that found foreign nationals seeking asylum in Britain on the grounds that they were gay and would face persecution at home often had to provide “proof” they were gay, with extreme cases showing that individuals handed over “photographic and video evidence of 'highly personal sexual activity.'”
Jammeh has a history of making anti-gay threats, previously warning homosexuals in The Gambia, “If we catch you, you will regret why you were born.” Jammeh also labeled homosexuality as “one of the biggest threats to human existence” in an address before the United Nations last year.
