The LGBTQ refugees in in East Africa are facing new problems - A Progress Report



Dramatic policy shifts and local floods make life uncertain for the refugees in East Africa.

As reported Nakafeero is now in a camp in South Sudan, where she is exploring the possibility of getting resettlement for as many of her people as possible. 

(We are not naming the camp in South Sudan for security purposes. The local police use web search to identify LGBTQ refugees.)

At the same time we keep track of what is happening to those who remain in Kakuma in Kenya.

Resettlement

Let us look at the resettlement first.

Before Trump took over in Washington, quite a few LGBTQ refugees had been allowed entry into the US from the South Sudan camp, assisted by American NGOs and the American government. This is why some of Nakafeero's group went to South Sudan. This policy was immediately cancelled when the new administration took over.

We doubt very much that it will be restarted, given the current regime's anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policies. 

Because of this the refugees are looking for alternative destinations, Canada being one of them. If you have any information regarding open doors, let us know.

Nakafeero & Co have put any further journeys from Kenya to South Sudan on hold for the time being.

The dismantling of USAID

The Trump administration's attempted dismantling of  the American development agency USAID has also caused chaos and despair. Keep in mind that many NGOs get support from USAID, and many of them have had to reduce their activity levels.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced waivers for life-saving humanitarian assistance, but Amnesty reports that the United States government’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid is severely imperiling the human rights of refugees, civilians in armed conflict areas and individuals fleeing persecution in - for instance - Myanmar.

A judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily allow funds for foreign aid to flow again, pointing to the damage  done to the nonprofits and other organizations that help carry out U.S. assistance overseas. The order applies to contracts that were in place before Trump issued his Jan. 20 executive order freezing foreign assistance.

So far our friends in Kakuma in Kenya and the camp in South Sudan have not registered a stop in aid from the UNHCR and the local NGOs. However, we are preparing for the worst, including the possibility that the refugees would have to buy all food, medicine and clothing with their own funds.

We will let you know how that goes.

Kakuma

The situation over Kenya Kakuma refugee's camp has been bad as they got some heavy rain which destroyed the property of some people, Nakafeero tells me: 

"And Scorpions are attaching people and snake's since the place is very cold."

The group lost plates, cups and clothes, Nakafeero says:  

"And we probably need  to cement barriers inside ourselves, so that snakes and Scorpions or harmful insects can't attack us."

Any help will be appreciated!

Social media problems

We have faced some serious challenges with Nakafeero's Mastodon-account. Mastodon is a European twitter-alternative that is supposed to be both color blind and LGBTQ-inclusive.

Nevertheless, she has had several accounts closed down, most likely because she has linked to our fundrzr-account, which is - for some bizarre reason - seen as spam. There is nothing in the code of conduct that implies that you are not allowed to ask people for help. For some reason my account has not been affected. 

She has had to put up another account over at https://masto.ai/@Nakafeero@mas.to . If you have followed her before or want to talk to her now, that is one place to do so.  She can also be contacted over at Bluesky at  https://bsky.app/profile/nakafeeroswabulah.bsky.social . We have also a common account over at Mastodon: https://lgbtqia.space/@LGBTQ_Kakuma 

Per Koch

per.koch@aviana.com

If you want to help Nakafeero and her friends, donate over at our Fundrzr page!

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