By Kim Da-ye



A Ugandan woman who claims to be a lesbian lost a lawsuit through which she sought to gain refugee status due to a lack of evidence proving she is homosexual and subject to persecution.



The Seoul High Court ruled Thursday in favor of the Seoul Immigration Office which denied the Ugandan refugee status in November 2011, claiming that she sought to marry a man through a dating website.



"With the evidence provided by the complainant and her testimony, it's difficult to find it credible that she is homosexual and that there is well-grounded fear of being persecuted in her home country because of her sexual orientation," said the high court in its ruling.



The Ugandan came to Korea with a short-term business visa in February 2011, and applied for refugee status a month and half later. She claimed that two months before she came to Korea, people in her village in Uganda told her mother to kick her out of the village because she is homosexual. The villagers ended up setting fire to her house, killing her mother and younger sister, she said.



The immigration authority rejected her application, and she brought the case to the Seoul Administrative Court, asking it to reverse the decision.



The lower court ruled in April last year in favor of the Ugandan, citing that a medical examination showed she was extremely depressed and remorseful about the deaths of her family members. The court also said results of the sexual orientation test showed she was highly likely a lesbian.



The high court, however, overturned the ruling, based on more evidence provided by the immigration office.



The immigration service found that the Ugandan had sought male suitors in an online dating site called Connecting Singles (connectingsingles.com) and exchanged emails with several men. An unknown number of men even proposed to her. Users of the website type in personal information including sexual orientation to find their matches. According to the ruling, the Ugandan wrote details of a preferred suitor including age, race, look and personality.



The Ugandan explained to the court that she pretended to be heterosexual and wanted to get married because she didn't have a job and had financial problems.



The court, however, said in the ruling that it is "difficult to trust the argument."



The court also found no sufficient evidence that her mother and sister were killed in an arson attack. "The local police of her village said that there was no report of a fire or death in a fire in February 2011," the ruling said.



The Ugandan was granted humanitarian status in June 2012 by the Justice Ministry. Humanitarian status holders have to renew their visa every year and apply for a work permit, while those with refugee status renew visas every three years and are allowed to freely work in Korea.



