Tardis, ‘Developing safe and legal pathways for LGBTQI+ refugees’, 2024
- Category: Reports
- Source: NGOs
- Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Gender Identity, Intersex, Refugee/Asylum
- Place: Europe, Germany, Italy, Other
- Year: 2024
- File: DEVELOPING-SAFE-AND-LEGAL-PATHWAYS-FOR-LGBTQI-REFUGEES_APRIL-2024_EN
- URL: https://synergies-migrations.org/SynergiesMigrations/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DEVELOPING-SAFE-AND-LEGAL-PATHWAYS-FOR-LGBTQI-REFUGEES_APRIL-2024_EN.pdf
Matthieu Tardis, ‘Developing safe and legal pathways for LGBTQI+ refugees: An overview of the situation in France, Germany and Italy’, Synergies Migrations, 2024
Abstract
Safe and legal pathways are mechanisms for people in need of international protection, who are generally already refugees in a first country of asylum, to be transferred safely, legally and in an organised manner to a country where they can find protection and build a new life. These processes are particularly necessary for people at risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, who, because of these grounds for persecution, are less able to leave their country safely and are more likely to be exposed to violence on migration routes.
Unlike Canada, where programmes target this population, discussions about the inclusion of LGBTQI+ refugees on legal pathways are still at an early stage in the European Union while these mechanisms are growing and diversifying in Europe. This study aims to provide an overview of legal routes for sexual and gender minorities in France, Germany and Italy. It aims to identify to what extent they are included in existing programmes, intentionally or otherwise, under what conditions, and whether there are more specific ad hoc practices for these refugees.
Many LGBTQI+ refugees meet one or more of the criteria for government resettlement programmes because of their vulnerabilities. This is also the case for private sponsorship programmes through which civil society organisations and citizens’ groups welcome and support refugees. However, although we lack statistical data on the number of resettled LGBTQI+ refugees, it seems that very few of them benefit of this type of legal pathways due to their isolation and fears that they still have in their first countries of asylum. The challenge then is to implement identification and selection procedures adapted to their situation in a climate of compassion, tolerance and understanding of the realities experienced by refugees. Co-operation with local human rights organisations is, therefore, important to reach LGBTQI+ people, which NGO partners in the French and Italian humanitarian corridors are starting to do.
People from sexual and gender minorities manage to legally reach Europe mostly through humanitarian visa schemes. This is the case in France, and to a lesser extent, in Germany where LGBTQI+ rights organisations are using these tools. However, these practices are limited, discretionary and not very transparent, and the outcome is never certain. In the end, they mainly benefit activists connected to international networks. The German humanitarian admission programme for Afghans is the first large-scale experience of bringing LGBTQI+ refugees into Europe. It has been a failure to date, which once again raises questions about the accessibility of these procedures for LGBTQI+ refugees.
Family reunification has a specific place in the arsenal of legal pathways, as it is a fundamental right. Although queer families are now better recognised, this equality does not extend to LGBTQI+ refugee families, particularly in Italy and Germany. In both these countries, only married couples can qualify for family reunification which excludes LGBTQI+ couples de facto and de jure. The legal framework is more liberal in France where LGBTQI+ refugees can bring in their unmarried partner. However, they are then faced with the difficulty of proving a stable and long-term relationship in a setting where this was more often than not hidden.
The study shows there is still considerable work to be done to better include LGBTQI+ refugees in legal pathways programmes in Germany, France and Italy. However, we are seeing greater awareness of this issue from the German and French governments, but especially from civil society organisations in all three countries. There is a need for greater skills and co-operation between refugee support and sexual and gender minority rights NGOs. However, these efforts may be in vain without leveraging additional resources from public and private donors, and particularly without the involvement of the LGBTQI+ communities in France, Germany and Italy.
French version available here.