When identity adds risk: Learn about the challenges faced by LGBTQI+ asylum seekers through AMIF RFSL, and what is being done.
In 2020, RFSL published a legal review by asylum law expert Aino Gröndahl, analyzing over 2,000 decisions from the Migration Agency and courts. It revealed that LGBTQI asylum seekers were expected to describe an inner process of self-realization and speak openly about it—an expectation based on harmful stereotypes. As a result, many were wrongly rejected and deported.
Although the Migration Agency responded to the findings and took different measures, a follow-up report in 2023 showed no improvement: 96 percent of reviewed cases were still rejections, and unlawful demands in SOGIESC cases continued, leading to deportations to countries where individuals risk persecution, torture, or death.
As an action to create change, RFSL created a project starting in 2024 that is co-financed by AMIF (the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund). Through this project, RFSL gave different RFSL branches the opportunity to hire people to provide more LGBTQI+ asylum seekers with support during their processes. RFSL Linköping is one of those branches, focusing on aiding LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in Östergötland, and now also, Sörmland.
Join us for a walkthrough of the project with local coordinator for AMIF RFSL through RFSL Linköping, Yara Waked. Learn more about the work being done and gain deeper insight into the initiative.
Observe that the presentation will be in English, but the speaker talks Swedish as well and is open to taking questions in Swedish too.
Yara Waked is the project coordinator for AMIF RFSL Linköping
