Homosexual violence in asylum centers is still not properly addressed. According to chairman Kortekaas of the LGBT Asylum Support Foundation, separate, safe reception places for LGBT asylum seekers must now be established quickly. He has sent an urgent letter to State Secretary Broekers-Knol.
“Since June, we have already received sixty reports of violence against LGBTI people in asylum seekers centers. We forwarded them to a hotline, but heard nothing more about it,” Kortekaas said in the newspaper. NOS Radio 1 News. Faithful has made an inventory of violence in asylum seekers’ centers, which also shows that the approach to homosexual violence is failing.
Kortekaas mentions an incident at the azc in Gilze at the beginning of this month as a low point. A Nigerian woman had visited her friend, a resident of an asylum seekers’ center in Friesland. An argument ensued with a Nigerian straight couple, who called the two “stupid lesbians”. The leadership was called in, but it could not prevent the visiting woman was poured over with boiling water by the wife of the straight couple.
At rock bottom
“We have been in talks with the State Secretary since 2016 about separate units for LGBTI asylum seekers. Because that works, especially for transgender people. We want every asylum seekers’ center to have such a unit”, says Kortekaas. “We do not understand why it is still not a policy to oblige every asylum seekers’ center to have an LGBTI unit. We have reached a low point.”
In asylum seekers’ centers that do have such a unit, the separate room often disappears again and heterosexuals are also placed. This has to do with a lack of space. “But you can’t tell those other residents that the rainbow flag should be taken off the wall, can you?” Says Kortekaas.
The LGBT Asylum Support Foundation also calls for more information. “We have placed signs at asylum seekers’ centers explaining Article 1 of the Constitution.” That article prohibits discrimination. “The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers was very benevolent”, says Kortekaas. “But a broader campaign is really needed.”
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