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Transgender woman held on immigration matter to fly home

A transgender woman from London, England who was initially held in a men’s jail after being detained over an apparent immigration issue is to return home today.

TORONTO — A transgender woman from London, England who was initially held in a men’s jail after being detained over an apparent immigration issue is to return home today.

Her girlfriend tweets that Avery Edison will take a flight back to the United Kingdom from Toronto’s Pearson airport following a decision that was made at an immigration hearing.

Edison had tweeted she was detained by the Canada Border Services Agency after landing in Toronto on Monday, and she suspected it was due to previously overstaying her student visa.

But she said that despite being listed as female on her passport she was sent to Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Milton, Ont. — a jail for males — while awaiting a hearing. Edison was moved to a facility for women on Tuesday.

Her girlfriend Romy Sugden, who lives in Toronto, had earlier tweeted that jail staff told her Edison was sent to the male facility because she has male genitalia.

Edison wrote that the prospect of being sent to a male facility, where she believed she would be “a potential target for sex attacks,” was “terrifying.”