Growing up gay in Burma I did not really understand what being ‘gay’ meant but I believed that my feelings must be wrong. I think most LGBTI people who left Burma for refugee camps in Thailand were similarly confused about…
“It was the vigilante groups. It was the villagers. It was the uncles. It was the entire system. It was the guy I was working for who would scream in front of his clients: “kandu” [“fag” – pejorative term for…
Research published in 2011 found that authorities in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region only occasionally have to deal with LGBTI asylum claims. The Fleeing |Homophobia project of COC Netherlands and VU University Amsterdam[i] found that since 1997 the…
Sexual minorities leave home for a variety of reasons but their departure is often due to the identity-based violence, discrimination and harassment they face at the hands of state actors, family and community. Although no international legal instrument exists to…
Brazil has a long tradition of providing shelter and protection to people persecuted for political, racial and social reasons. Following the directives of UNHCR concerning the definition of a ‘social group’ as a cohesive and vulnerable group whose members share…
The EU is in the process of setting up a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) which is being developed in two phases. During the first phase, the EU Qualification Directive was adopted (Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004) which established…
Until July 2010, individuals who claimed asylum in the UK on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI) were considered not to be in need of international protection if it would be “reasonable” for them to be “discreet”…
Individuals making asylum claims based on persecution which relates to their sexual orientation need to argue their case under the ‘particular social group’ category of the 1951 Refugee Convention. This category has long been the most contested of the Refugee…
Interviews with case workers, solicitors specialising in LGBT asylum cases and a gay immigration charity in the UK indicate that UKBA officials resort to obsolete stereotypes in order to ‘inform’ their decision making. Asylum seekers have been denied protection because…
The Fahamu Refugee Programme’s information portal for those providing legal aid to refugees is expanding its resources for those defending cases based on sexual orientation – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI). To facilitate instant access to the information…