Transgender asylum seekers are transgender persons seeking refuge in another country due to stigmatization and persecution in their home countries. Trans asylum seekers may be fleeing from state-sponsored discrimination as well as from isolation within their family. According to the BBC, Amnesty International found that "the climate had become particularly bad during the pandemic, with many trans people 'isolated with hostile family members' and unable to access healthcare or wider support."[1]
Countries of origin
editTransgender persons may have experienced "severe persecution" in the countries they have fled, even where anti-trans laws do not exist.[2] For example, in a 1999 case reported by Fatima Mohyuddin, a transgender woman only avoided deportation after her attorney invoked the United Nations Convention against Torture, in light of being tortured upon a previous deportation to Nicaragua.[3]
In 2017, Amnesty International reported on transgender and other LGBTI people seeking asylum from three countries in Central America: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In 2020, Amnesty claimed that the situation in Guatemala was particularly unsafe for trans women in El Salvador. In Mexico, transgender women face "extreme vulnerability," according to a public health review of 45 cases, while noting that their health problems did not disappear in the U.S..[4]
In 2021, the BBC reported on trans persons seeking asylum from Arab countries.[1] In 2019, Thomson Reuters highlighted the case of a transgender woman who fled from the United States due to U.S. policies, such as with military service. She was sexually assaulted at a Norwegian asylum center and then deported back to the United States.[5] [6]
Treatment while seeking asylum
editIn some cases, trans asylum seekers are at greater risk than others offered refugee status. For example, Britain arranged for Rwanda to absorb asylum seekers from various countries but, according to PinkNews based on a British government report, trans asylum seekers are reportedly at great risk in Rwanda due to its prosecution of trans people, more than other LGBT categories, as "deviants."[7][8]
Trans persons may also be at risk while detained in the countries in which they seek asylum, as Thomson Reuters reported regarding the treatment of trans refugees in the United States. It reported on the mistreatment of 112 trans persons in 28 U.S. facilities, including sexual harassment and assaults. According to a 2019 Reuters story, NGOs also reported abuse or rape of trans persons in U.K. and Greek facilities for asylum seekers. An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated that, “Any time we hear any type of allegations of mistreatment, we look into it, take appropriate action and we try to remedy it.” [5] That year, The Atlantic published a story "The Horrors of ICE’s ‘Trans Pod’" accompanied by a video "The Horrific Untold Story of Trans ICE Detention." about the reported mistreatment of trans asylum seekers in the United States.
Asylum outcomes
editWhen denied asylum, there have been reports of adverse outcomes for trans persons, such as one denied U.S. asylum under "the Trump administration’s hardening policy on asylum seekers," who was killed two months after her return.[9]
When asylum is granted, transgender persons may still face difficulties, as Molly Hennessy-Fiske, a reporter for the LA Times, discovered about an asylum seeker who she met in October 2019 and who committed suicide in May 2020. Hennessy-Fiske noted that 40% of transgender people adults commit suicide, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.[10]
Legal issues and political debate
editGlobally, asylum laws leave LGBTI refugee detainees "particularly susceptible to heightened levels of physical and mental abuse," according to refugee law specialists Shana Tabak and Rachel Levitan, and transgender refugees suffer in particular from inadequate access to hormone therapy (36ff.). This lack of access, in turn, may make them more visible during transition and hence more readily targeted for transphobic abuse (17). The typical separation by biological sex in detention centers may also cause problems, with transgender women the most vulnerable to sexual assault (16; 27). The authors recommended changes in detention policies, detainee safety protocols, and health care, with a priority on non-detention approaches.[2] A 2021 law review article made a similar argument, regarding U.S. policy, due to the "unique challenges" facing transgender and other gender nonconforming asylum seekers.[11]
Since 2000, the United States has recognized transgender asylum seekers as a social group that deserves protection on the basis of gender identity.[12] Nonetheless, transgender asylum petitioners may be disadvantaged due the application of specific laws, such as prostitution.[13]
In the United States, political activists have sought to improve conditions for trans asylum seekers.[14]
External links:
editTrans Asylum Seeker Support Network. https://grassrootsfund.org/groups/trans-asylum-seeker-support-network
Notes
edit- ^ a b Lawrie, Eleanor (7 December 2021). "Helping trans people escape death in their home countries". BBC News. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ a b Tabak, Shana, and Rachel Levitan. "LGBTI migrants in immigration detention: A global perspective." Harv. JL & Gender 37 (2014): 1.
- ^ Mohyuddin, Fatima. "United States asylum law in the context of sexual orientation and gender identity: Justice for the transgendered." Hastings Women's LJ 12 (2001): 387.
- ^ Cheney, Marshall K., Mary J. Gowin, E. Laurette Taylor, Melissa Frey, Jamie Dunnington, Ghadah Alshuwaiyer, J. Kathleen Huber, Mary Camero Garcia, and Grady C. Wray. "Living outside the gender box in Mexico: testimony of transgender Mexican asylum seekers." American journal of public health 107, no. 10 (2017): 1646-1652.https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2017.303961?casa_token=rm-V1sseeP4AAAAA:r55DaLG7Krsxz_i_927hyQHa1b9IiaerBetOi707PuyL_oASubwlRKbiN2AFII4IsaI4m_A1U2U
- ^ a b Savage, Rachel (July 18, 2019). "Trans asylum seekers assaulted, abused in U.S., UK, Norway detention". Reuters. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
- ^ Buder, Emily (text), and Johnson, Syliva (video) "The Horrors of ICE’s ‘Trans Pod’" July 9, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/593554/trans-asylum-seeker/
- ^ Milton, Josh (June 15, 2022). "Trans asylum seeker narrowly misses Rwanda deportation date: 'I'm glad I won't go'". Pink News.
- ^ British Home Office (May 2022). "Review of asylum processing Rwanda: assessment" (PDF) (PDF). Retrieved July 27, 2022.
{{cite web}}: Check|archive-url=value (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Renteria, Nelson (February 22, 2019). "Trans asylum-seeker killed after U.S. deportation back to El Salvador". Reuters. Retrieved Julyh 27, 2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ Hennessy-Fiske, Molly (October 5, 2020). "'She was really a warrior': Transgender migrant reaches U.S. only to die". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved Juy 27, 2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ Leonard, Marnie. "A Particular Social Group: The Inadequacy of US Asylum Laws for Transgender Claimants." Hum. Rts. Brief 25 (2021): 161.
- ^ Cory, Connor. "The LGBTQ asylum seeker: Particular social groups and authentic queer identities." Geo. J. Gender & L. 20 (2018): 578 and footnote 2.
- ^ As argued in Medina, Luis. "Immigrating While Trans: The Disproportionate Impact of the Prostitution Ground of Inadmissibility and Other Provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act on Transgender Women." Scholar 19 (2016): 253.
- ^ Brittany Valentine. "A new call to release transgender ICE detainees gains momentum nationwide" Al Dia. March 04, 2021 https://aldianews.com/en/politics/policy/end-trans-detention