DAKAR, Senegal
Farah fled Morocco to save her life. Her family had beaten her, hunted her, and tried to kill her after discovering she was in a same-sex relationship.
Now, after a harrowing journey to the United States and a swift deportation by the Trump administration, the 21-year-old says she is back in the country where being gay is a crime—and back in hiding.
“I have to work and live with the fear of being tracked once again by my family,” Farah told The Associated Press in a rare testimony from an asylum-seeker deported to a third country despite having a protection order from a U.S. immigration judge. “But there is nothing I can do.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of persecution, Farah described a desperate odyssey that began when her relationship was discovered.
She was beaten, first by her own family and then by her partner’s relatives. Kicked out of the family home, she fled to another city with her partner, only to be found and nearly killed, she said.
Through a friend, the couple learned of an opportunity to obtain visas for Brazil, hoping to eventually reach the United States where they had connections.
From Brazil, they trekked through six countries over weeks before finally reaching the U.S. border, where they requested asylum.
The AP reviewed her protection order, and lawyers verified parts of her account. In Morocco, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison.
Now, Farah says she is trapped in the very country she fled, her safety once again hanging in the balance.
By James Kisoo
