SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Advocacy group Human Rights Watch released an in-depth report Thursday that details the abuse and discrimination the LGBTQ community says it faces in the eastern Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, where gay sex is still criminalised.

From homelessness to ongoing physical and verbal abuse, the gay community in the small nation of some 100,000 people says it is under constant threat.

“Every LGBT person interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they wished to leave the country immediately or had envisioned their future abroad,” the report stated.

In St Vincent, anal sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while “gross indecency” with another person of the same sex is punishable by up to five years, according to colonial-era laws that are common in the socially conservative Caribbean region.

While rarely invoked, the rights group and a local activist said the laws help legitimise hostility and abuse against gay people.

“These laws still have an impact,” said Jeshua Bardoo, an international human rights lawyer from St Vincent. “People feel emboldened to discriminate or be violent.”

In July 2019, two gay men from St Vincent who are living abroad filed a case to challenge local laws criminalising gay sex that activists say should be struck down. The hearings just ended, and a local judge is expected to issue a ruling in upcoming months, said Cristian González Cabrera, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.

González said he wrote the report on St Vincent and the Grenadines given the high levels of abuse and discrimination against LGBTQ people there.

“The challenges are significant,” he said. “The (LGTBQ) community in the country is very, very marginalised and vulnerable.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 20 members of the island’s LGBTQ community who shared their stories but were not identified to protect them, noting that local police are often openly discriminatory toward gay people who seek help.

A 58-year-old bisexual man recalled how someone hit him in the head with a bottle in an attack that cracked his skull and put him in a coma. The attack “caused permanent damage to his speech, vision, motor functions, memory and balance,” according to the report.

Those interviewed also reported bullying at school, prompting several of them to drop out after receiving no support from teachers or administration officials. One gay man recalled how his classmates beat him and broke his arm.

Several reported that their families are homophobic and physically and verbally abused them, causing them to become homeless and prompting some to consider suicide.

Many also struggle to find jobs amid a high unemployment rate and said they face discrimination, including a 19-year-old gay man who said he has resorted to begging: “Sometimes I am so hungry. …. It is hard for me as a gay in this country.”

Six English-speaking nations in the Caribbean still criminalise gay sex, including Dominica, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Saint Lucia. Four others have repealed such laws; Trinidad and Tobago did so in 2018, followed by Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis last year.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines should really take note of what’s happening in the region and not be the last country to decriminalise,” González said.