The Dwelling Workplace has printed an up to date nation coverage and data notice often called a ‘CPIN’ on Pakistan and sexual orientation and gender identification claims. A brand new model of the notice was printed in Might 2025, changing the earlier model from April 2022 and making vital adjustments to the 2022 model. This newest iteration, printed November 2025, builds on these adjustments. Beneath, we contemplate the Dwelling Workplace’s up to date place, assess whether or not it considerably adjustments the panorama for LGBT+ asylum seekers from Pakistan and spotlight conflicts with different latest nation proof.
A side-by-side comparability of the April 2022 model with the November 2025 model could be seen right here. As has grow to be normal with these updates, the construction of the doc has modified, which makes it an arduous job to determine which of the adjustments are materials.
This is one more instance of why the manager abstract of a rustic coverage notice ought to by no means be taken at face worth. This notice fails to substantiate its conclusions within the abstract with proof from the remainder of the doc. In truth, the nation proof typically factors to an reverse conclusion.
Who does the nation coverage and data notice apply to?
Nation coverage and data notes are paperwork printed by the Dwelling Workplace which offer up-to-date nation info to help decision-makers tasked with assessing danger on return to a rustic for sure teams of individuals looking for safety within the UK.
The notice is necessary for anybody who has sought safety within the UK due to a worry of return to Pakistan attributable to their sexual orientation or gender identification. It is because the proof in it’s more likely to kind the idea of a Dwelling Workplace determination of their case and also will be thought-about by a tribunal in any attraction ought to the declare be refused.
What does it say?
The notice recognises that a person looking for asylum due to their sexual or gender identification will fall inside the remit of the Refugee Conference as a result of ‘LGBT+ folks kind a specific social group’. In regulation, being a part of a ‘specific social group’ means sharing an innate attribute or frequent background that’s so basic to identification that an individual shouldn’t be pressured to surrender it and having a definite identification within the nation an individual is from as a result of the group is perceived as being ‘totally different’ by surrounding society. To date, no change right here within the steerage.
Establishing that somebody’s declare falls inside the remit of the Refugee Conference is simply the primary hurdle to reach a declare. The choice-maker or tribunal will proceed to think about danger of hurt, whether or not safety is accessible from the state and feasibility of any inside relocation earlier than accepting a declare.
Danger
On the subject of danger, the notice is considerably muddled. The doc first confirms that there’s restricted details about the extent of therapy of LGBT+ folks in Pakistan and that the majority info focusses on trans ladies.
The notice then proceeds to state that LGBT+ people are unlikely to face persecution from the state in Pakistan. This assertion is made regardless of the notice recognising there are not any legal guidelines prohibiting discrimination based mostly on sexual orientation in Pakistan and that consensual same-sex acts are criminalised underneath Part 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code with a most penalty of life imprisonment.
The notice then identifies that LGBT+ persons are, nonetheless, more likely to face persecution from non-state actors corresponding to from members of the family, group members or non secular teams, as a result of there’s vital societal discrimination. The ‘government abstract’ itself paints an image of the intense dangers: it describes that homosexual males are sometimes focused for extortion and topic to violence and lesbian and bisexual ladies going through violence together with honour killing and ‘corrective’ rape. Anybody making ready their declare ought to set out clearly who the applicant fears hurt from.
The notice provides info at 3.3.2 about those that enter right into a “lavender” marriage, described as a heterosexual union between a homosexual man and a lesbian, to guard themselves from societal and familial rejection. It means that it’s elite people residing in city areas who enter such preparations however it isn’t clear why that is referenced inside the doc.
The notice additionally states that people who don’t adjust to organized marriages, can face rejection and, in excessive instances, honour killings. It’s unclear how this might be interpreted by the Dwelling Workplace when assessing claims involving a “lavender” marriage.
If danger of hurt is established, then the following consideration is whether or not state safety is accessible to them.
Safety
The most important change within the coverage is that this notice now claims that these fearing critical hurt or persecution from non-state actors could have the ability to receive safety from the state. In line with the nation coverage notice that is determined by who’s fearing hurt and it states {that a} lesbian, homosexual or bisexual particular person will discover that the state is ‘in a position however not keen’ to supply efficient safety.
It is a departure from the April 2022 model, which said:
2.5.5 Basically, the state could have the option, however just isn’t keen, to supply efficient safety to lesbian, homosexual and bisexual individuals and the individual will be unable to avail themselves to the safety of the authorities.
In distinction, the brand new notice states:
4.1.2 An individual who has a well-founded worry of persecution or critical hurt from a rogue state actor and/or a non-state actor could possibly receive safety from the state relying on their profile.
Additional, this paragraph considerably contrasts with what is claimed within the subsequent paragraph:
4.1.3 Basically, the state is ready however not keen to supply efficient safety to lesbian, homosexual or bisexual folks.
Pedants will notice there’s a slight shift right here from the state ‘could’ have the option, within the earlier model, to ‘is’ in a position, within the present model, to offer efficient safety.
This leaves issues barely unclear and the strategy that decision-makers will take right here is unknown. It appears probably that a person will now want to determine why the state wouldn’t have the ability to defend them and this creator has just lately encountered this strategy from the Dwelling Workplace throughout an attraction listening to.
The idea of the shift is unclear provided that the nation info has not considerably modified. The target proof introduced inside the notice itself paints the identical image as that within the earlier notice.
Inner relocation
It’s usually accepted within the nation coverage notice that somebody who’s lesbian, homosexual or bisexual might be unlikely to have the ability to relocate internally. That is due to “prevailing homophobic attitudes throughout the nation”. Primarily based on this, somebody figuring out as such needn’t present that inside relocation is unavailable to them.
This aligns with the earlier model, nonetheless the next paragraph has been eliminated:
2.6.4 Inner relocation won’t be an choice if it is determined by the individual concealing their sexual orientation and/or gender identification within the proposed new location if the explanation (or one of many causes) is a worry of persecution. Every case have to be thought-about on its details.
The Dwelling Workplace has been systematically eradicating these references from all the nation coverage info notes on sexual orientation and gender identification claims, nonetheless elimination of this paragraph doesn’t take away from the established case regulation which confirms that an LGBT+ individual can’t be anticipated to return to their nation of origin and stay discreetly (HJ (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Dwelling Division [2010] UKSC 31).
For trans people, the notice says that there’s safety in regulation and relocation to city areas could also be cheap ‘topic to particular person circumstances’. Anybody looking for asylum on this foundation might want to set up why they’d not have the ability to safely relocate together with any causes which may make that relocation unduly harsh.
Does this align with what’s presently being reported on Pakistan?
The nation info inside the notice itself undermines the assertion that lesbian, homosexual and bisexual folks could possibly receive state safety towards non-state actors in Pakistan. Part 9 of the nation coverage notice cites quite a few sources which reveal the state being at finest, dismissive, and at worst, persecutory in the direction of LGBT+ folks.
As an illustration, the police are reported to abuse the regulation which criminalises sexual relations between males as a software to blackmail, harass, and extort LGBT+ folks. That is reported by the Australian Division of International Affairs and Commerce (DFAT) and Mission ADAL, (9.2.1 to 9.2.4). Notably, the DFAT report is dated April 2025.
The US State Division reported in 2023 that the police are usually taking little motion in response to experiences of crimes towards LGBT+ folks (9.4.1). A United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed considerations round impunity for perpetrators of crimes towards LGBT+ folks (9.4.5).
The US State Division’s 2024 Nation Report on Human Rights Practices in Pakistan, which was printed after the nation coverage notice, is silent on the experiences of LGBT+ folks. Nonetheless, as Human Rights Watch highlighted earlier this yr, many 2024 editions of these experiences omit the standard sections on gender and sexuality. This sample raises the chance that the omissions are a deliberate try by the Trump administration to minimise human rights abuses of sure teams.
Conclusion
When making submissions, you will need to do not forget that the usual for proving that an individual wouldn’t be protected from persecution is the decrease normal, a cheap diploma of chance, as per s.32(4) Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
General, the nation coverage notice’s government abstract on state safety doesn’t align with what’s being extensively reported about Pakistan and so these engaged on these instances ought to be sure that they handle this level when making submissions to the Dwelling Workplace in assist of an asylum declare.
This text was co-authored by Katherine Soroya and Niamh Fegan, each of Goldsmith Chambers.
