LGBTI+ asylum claimants call for a fairer system

• Author: Publications Office
• Pages: 21-22

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LGBTI+ asylum claimants

call for a fairer system

In 2020, sexual orientation and gender identity are still a mere aerthought in the

asylum granting process. e SOGICA project has been documenting the consequences

of this lack of understanding and provides recommendations for future British,

German, Italian and European policy.

Asylum claims by people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,

intersex, and of other sexualities, sexes and gender diversities

(LGBTI+) are increasing. Individuals often face discrimination and

can be victims of persecution in their countries of birth, which makes

it necessary for them to seek asylum in less hostile countries.

Although the number of people in the LGBTI+ community

fleeing persecution is rising there is a relative lack of academic

studies and NGO reports focusing on this very specific type of

asylum claim. According to Nuno Ferreira, co-director of the

Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research, this is mostly because

researchers and policymakers have so far failed to realise that

sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) asylum claims are

actually widespread.

“Until recently, SOGI asylum claimants have been rather invisible

within the larger refugee population. Meanwhile, political and

media priorities have generally lain elsewhere. Experts were most

concerned with racist, xenophobic, homophobic and transphobic

social trends,” he explains.

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