UK Home Office grant man asylum after they claimed he lied about his sexuality
Yew Fook Sam fled Malaysia back in 1988 after his wife found out he was gay
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A man who faced deportation after the UK Home Office claimed he was lying about his sexuality has been granted asylum.
Yew Fook Sam – who is best known as Sam – left his wife and family in 1988 after she found out he was gay and he fled Malaysia and went to the US but in 2005, he came to the UK on a visit visa but remained and started working.
Back in 2016, he was arrested for working illegally and was held in an immigration centre before the Home Office gave him accommodation in Kirkby, in Merseyside, where he has been an active member of the LGBTQ+ community.
His case was put through a first-tier and upper tribunal and he exhausted all of his appeals.
Papers from the second case stated that the original judge “provided detailed and cogent reasons for finding that the appellant’s account of his sexuality was not a genuine and credible one, identifying numerous inconsistencies and discrepancies in his account.”
The Home Office continued to say he was lying about his sexuality as he does not have a male partner but Sam says it is because he doesn’t ‘need sex’.
But now, just in time for Christmas, the Liverpool Echo reported that the Home Office have granted him asylum.
Sam told the newspaper: “I am so happy. I was crying and screaming with joy when I got the phone call from my lawyer.
“This will be my best Christmas ever!”