Welcome - Support - Refuge
REFUGEES WELCOME!
In 2022, Rainbow Refugees NI led the Belfast Pride Parade with the powerful message ‘Refugees Welcome’, proudly challenging a rising homophobic and racist anti-immigration rhetoric across Ireland and England. In conversation with Oisín Kenny, researcher and learning officer Chougher Maria Doughramajian speaks of the joy in hearing her first language in queer spaces, the increasing need for LGBTQ+-specific refugee housing, and the ongoing fight to end systemic harm against those seeking asylum.
Many queer people across the globe are forced to flee their homes for fear of life-threatening persecution, discrimination, and violence. In hopes of finding safety and refuge, they can be subjected to a tumultuous, dehumanising asylum process and ever-growing vile racist and homophobic anti-immigration rhetoric within the host country.
Across the globe, currently 65 jurisdictions criminalise same-sex relations, according to the Human Dignity Trust. 12 countries uphold the death penalty for same-sex relations and 14 countries criminalise the lives of trans and/ or non-binary people. The prevailing threat of persecution cuts access to vital support networks, including families, friends, and communities. Oftentimes, some of these aforementioned networks actually pose the greatest threat to queer lives and their wellbeing.
The treatment of LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum often fails the standards set by national and international laws, as noted in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and LGBT Ireland’s report: LGBTI+ People Living in International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) accommodation: Best Practices and Lived Experiences.