When Marius Kamna first arrived in Britain from his native Cameroon it was on a temporary visa to attend a UN climate change conference.
The 35-year-old’s fellow international delegates were no doubt surprised when, instead of contributing insight into environmental issues in central Africa, he instead abruptly claimed asylum in Britain on the basis that he was… secretly gay.
And those 2021 UN Glasgow conference colleagues would have been even more surprised to learn that in seeking to start a new life in Britain he was leaving behind in Africa… a wife and child.
The existence of a heterosexual partner back home was not put before the panel who eventually decided to grant Mr Kamna asylum in Britain.
And with 1,377 asylum seekers, 2 per cent of the total claiming asylum, using their sexual orientation as the basis for them to remain in the UK, some suggest that a number of them are gaming the system by claiming they needed to avoid persecution in their home nation for being gay when they it could be strongly suspected they actually aren’t.
So at first glance the discovery that Mr Kamna has a secret wife might appear to put him in this category – but, he told the Daily Mail, it is his straight marriage that he has been disingenuous about rather than his gay sexuality.
Mr Kamna explained that he has always been gay – and that he only got married and conceived a child in a deliberate attempt to get away from the homophobia that is widespread in his home country.
And certainly Cameroon does aggressively prosecute members of what in the UK we call the wider LGBTQ+ community. Wherever they fall on that spectrum those who identify in the group face discrimination, stigmatization and even formal legal censure.
Marius Kamna obtained a temporary visa to visit Britain from Cameroon to attend a UN climate change conference. But when he arrived, he claimed asylum saying he could not return home because he would be persecuted there for his homosexuality
When the Daily Mail heard of Mr Kamna’s case and approached him at the garage where he works on the outskirts of Cardiff, he initially explained the apparent anomaly in his background by saying he was bisexual.
But he soon corrected himself saying: ‘No, that’s not true, I am gay. That is the way I’ve been since I was 15 or 16.’
Explaining that he had initially misled the Daily Mail out of habit, having lied about his true identity for years, Mr Kamna went on: ‘I had so many secrets, I was persecuted.’
He said his Cameroonian marriage had been particularly aimed at winning back his parents who had previously disowned when they learned the truth about his sexuality.
Mr Kamna said: ‘I got chased out of the house by my parents and to earn back their respect a marriage was arranged.
‘I pretended I was changing.
‘An official was bribed, I signed some documents and I asked for forgiveness from my family.’
Despite his homosexuality, Mr Kamna says he did consummate his marriage to his wife Segning – which resulted in the birth of his son, Emanuel, who is now seven.
But Mr Kamna said that he struggled to maintain ‘living a lie’ – and when he was asked to attend that conference in Glasgow five years ago he saw the chance to finally come out, even if it meant abandoning his wife and child.
The former photography student admits that as a result of his asylum claim he hasn’t seen his son since he was born but insists that he speaks to him regularly on the phone and sends money to his mother for his upbringing.
Mr Kamna is now officially listed as having refugee status granted by the UK Government and is in full-time employment as a heavy goods vehicle mechanic.
But in a strange twist to the tale, he now says he has been unfairly targeted by a whispering campaign among the migrant community in the area around Cardiff – with false claims that he also has a wife and child in the UK as well.
And so intense has this whispering campaign become that he has even felt forced to move out of Cardiff to get away from it, he says.
But Mr Kamna insists that he and the woman, accompanied by a young boy, who has been regularly visiting him at his home in the village of Wick in the Vale of Glamorgan are ‘just good friends’.
And he says that those gossips who say he lied about being gay are simply spreading mischief.
He said: ‘She is a married lady from Cameroon who lives in Birmingham and comes to see me with a lot of other people from my country.
‘She is called Aurelle, she is not my wife and her boy is not my son.
‘She has helped me a lot since I’ve been here, she helps lots of people from Cameroon who have come to the UK. I like her a lot, she is my closest friend here.’
Mr Kamna says a group of up to eight people have visited him and there have been accusations that he has allowed them to stay overnight, breaking his tenancy agreement.
He admitted police have been called over disputes with his neighbours in the House in Multiple Occupation which he has now left.
Mr Kamna said: ‘There are some very wicked people around.
‘So you can’t have visitors without someone making up stories [that] they are your wife and child?
‘I am glad to leave that house, the people were unkind.’
What Mr Kamna failed to tell the panel considering his case was that in Cameroon he had a secret wife and child. Mr Kamna, who works as a mechanic in Cardiff, said the marriage was a sham and that he had been living a lie about his sexuality since he was 15 or 16
Mr Kamna has moved to a different HMO in nearby Newport where, he says, he can be closer to his true partner…. also a gay man from Africa.
Jonathan, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, is completing his Diploma in Heavy Vehicle Maintenance and Repair while working at a commercial vehicle garage like Mr Kamna.
He is also hoping to get leave to remain as his boyfriend Mr Kamna has had.
Mr Kamna added: ‘I am so happy here. When you come here (to the UK) you have to do everything right because you don’t want to go back.’
