Where to find hope of escape: In Kenya or South Sudan?

Rainbow over South Sudan, photo taken by Nakafeero.

Ugandan LGBTQ-refugees in Kenya are facing a dilemma: Should they stay in the Kakuma camp, with no hope for resettlement or should they go to the Gorom camp in South Sudan, which seems to give them hope of resettlement in more LGBTQ-friendly countries.

By Per Koch, Oslo, Norway

Nakafeero and her around 90 LGBTQ refugees have spent years in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. They tell horrifying stories about how they was treated in Uganda. Nakafeero herself lost her sister and mother to the local homophobic mob.

You might say that they chose to go to Kenya of their own free will, and that they are also free to leave. Which is all true - on paper. You may leave a refugee camp. But where do you go?

As long as you are a refugee you do not have the rights of regular citizens, as in to settle down, get a job, find a new home or do any of the things free citizens take for granted.

Hate crimes in the refugee camps
Nakafeero with food funded through donations.

Moreover, as an LGBTQ person you are vulnerable to attacks from haters in the camp. Many Ugandan LGBTQ refugees live in camps in Kenya and South Sudan, countries which are both governed by governments hostile to queer and trans people.

The Kenyan government may not protect LGBTQ hate crimes in the way the Ugandan government does, but nor do they provide queer people with the protection of the law.

I do not think we have to doubt that the UN wants to help LGBTQ refugees, but they are severely restrained by the fact that they have to be on good terms with the local government if they want to make the camps work as well as possible. So, that part of the story is - as they say - "complicated".

As I have documented before, life in the camps is not easy, especially not for LGBTQ refugees, who also face persecution from other people in the camp and - in some cases - the local police. This is serious violence, including murder. This constant fear of violence does something to your mind and your health, turning even a good day into a bad day.

Getting a resettlement status

This explains why the refugees are willing to risk a lot to get out of the camps, and to get refugee status in a more LGBTQ-friendly country.

This will allow them to restart lives that are now put on hold, to get an education, a good job, start a family, and be a contributor to the wider society.

This is why some of Nakafeero's allies in the Kakuma camp in Kenya have risked moving to a refugee camp in South Sudan.

This might sound strange, given that South Sudan is a worn torn country with an even more anti-LGBTQ government. But the fact is that the US and Canadian governments have given several of the Ugandan refugees in the Gorom camp legal resettlement status, starting last year.

That does not mean that these refugees can go to the US right away, though. That is a more complex process I do not know enough about right now, but this is clearly seen as progress by the refugees stuck in the kind of limbo these camps represent.

If I understand this correctly, the UNHCR is in the process of moving all South Sudanese refugees out of the camp as soon as possible. The next goal is to move the remaining foreign refugees out of the country, using the kind of resettlement schemes presented above to achieve this goal.

Nakafeero's fellow LGBTQ leader, Elvis, took their group of 14 refugees from Kakuma to the Gorom camp i South Sudan in March. They tell me that the journey was both expensive and scary.

But they did manage to meet with the US representative and they did get resettlement status (see photo to the right). They are still waiting for resettlement, though, and in the meantime they need help surviving in the camp. There is no time table for resettlement, and no guarantees.

Moving from Kenya to South Sudan?

All of this has made Nakafeero and her group consider their future and the possibility of moving to Gorom in order to get a similar resettlement status. Nakafeero is in Gorom right now visiting Elvis, Tina (a transgender activist) and their people, and gathering information of life in the camp.

I had video meeting with many of them (including a rowdy gang of wonderful kids) a few days ago. Nakafeero took me on a video tour of the local neighborhood in the Gorom camp.

UNHCR have provided them with some kind of tent-like housing, which should at least provide a minimum of protection against the elements.

There are local clinics and food distribution in Gorom, as well, but like in Kakuma the provisions are not enough. An added complication is that everything is more expensive in South Sudan compared to Kenya. So more funds are needed.

As in Kakuma, one of the major challenges is the lack of latrines. At the moment 300 people share one latrine, and we are looking into ways of helping the LGBTQ group get their own solution.

As you can see, Nakafeero and her allies are now active in both Kakuma and Gorom. Whether Nakafeero will bring her own group to Gorom remains to be decided. We will keep our donors posted.

The overlap between the two groups requires some pragmatic choices regarding Nakafeero's crowdfunding project, though. The donations given to her and her group will continue to go mainly to her group in Kakuma, but to the extent there are extraordinary expenses that will benefit both communities, we may also use some funds to help her LGBTQ-allies in Gorom.

If any of our readers know anything about the political and legal aspects of refugee resettlement, please contact me at per.koch@aviana.com. We need all the intel we can get!

Support Nakafeero and her group in Kakuma.

Support Elvis and the group in Gorom.

LGBTQ Refugees in Kakuma and Gorom