Brutalized LGBTQ Asylum Seekers Denied Shelter
The US and the world respond with apathy
Refugee camps in Kenya overflow with desperate men and women
LGBTQ people from Uganda and much of the rest of eastern Africa seek shelter by the thousands in relatively liberal Kenya, where the penalty for being gay or trans is “only” 14 years in prison.
Packed into informal camps and even into official United Nations (UNHCR) shelters, these men and women live with violence, rape, and starvation. LGBTQ rights groups like the Refugee Coalition of East Africa say that “the Kenyan government and UNHCR services [don’t] adequately provide for LGBTQI refugees in the region.”
Few refugees receive financial assistance, medical care is non-existent, and food is in critically short supply. Opposition from Kenyan locals is strong. Even if the refugees were legally entitled to work, nobody would hire them. Threats of violence keep them isolated in the camps.
He broke her skull, dislocated her arm, and threw her out of the hospital after he discovered she’s a lesbian.
According to the BBC, Kenyan authorities recently forced a group of gay men to return to the UNHCR camp they had fled after violent homophobic attacks.
My own message boxes flood every day with first-hand reports from LGBTQ refugees desperate for food, medical care, and information about how to seek asylum elsewhere.
Why do they flee to Kenya if the conditions are so terrible?
LGBTQ refugees flee to Kenya because the alternative is so much worse. They can’t go home, because they face imprisonment, torture, and even death. They don’t know where else to go.
BBC correspondent Cyuzuzo Samba of Nairobi tells Frank’s story:
When Frank’s (not his real name) family in…
