November 20, 2005
theage
NUDITY, lesbian antics and live TV sex on the British version of Big Brother have secured refugee status for a Zimbabwean woman who is afraid she will face lynch mobs if forced to return home.
Makosi Musambasi, a cardiac nurse who left her visa-sanctioned job in High Wycombe in the south of England to take part in the Big Brother program, became a star in Britain this year when she kissed a woman on screen.
Her celebrity was enhanced when she apparently had sex with a male contestant in the spa bath.
But the enthusiasm with which these events were greeted in Britain were not matched in her home country, where she was deemed a "low-life lesbian" in media reports, which declared: "Every Zimbabwean Should Be Ashamed".
After the program ended, Musambasi's visa was revoked by the British Home Office on the ground that she had deserted her job to venture into the Big Brother household.
But the Central London Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled on Thursday that Musambasi faced peril if forced to return to her country.
"She is in a different situation now than she was before appearing on Big Brother," said tribunal chairman Francis Pinkerton.
In what appears to be a novel legal award — refugee status on the grounds of Big Brother misbehaviour — the tribunal ruled that Musambasi should be allowed to remain in Britain.
The Home Office said it reserved the right to appeal against the decision.
