This article considers the nature of silence in UK asylum cases involving lesbian and gay claimants, asking whether the ambiguous and textured quality of silence can be a productive site of resistance, or whether the effect of silence perpetuates the problematic conceptualization of the refugee as a subjugated actor whose voice is muted within a hearing. The article discusses silence in light of the formal provisions of the Refugee Convention and evidentiary necessities around proof of an objective/subjective fear of persecution, questioning the impact silence has on the rendering of testimony and whether it is detrimental to an asylum claim. The equivocal nature of silence imparts a vulnerability to interpretation, rendering it subject to the imposition of unsolicited meaning. Silence’s indeterminacy, it is suggested, should give pause to the court to proceed in a manner that invokes caution around such inference.
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