Advocate reports that the Trump administration is planning to send LGBTQ refugees to countries that might kill them.
[Update regarding country: The UNHCR has asked us not to name a specific country or the refugee camp in this country, as they are worried about the safety of the LGBTQ refugees. The relevant government has anti-LGBTQ legislation and the local culture is often homophobic and transphobic. We are therefore going to refer to this country as East African Country No. 2 - or EAC2 for short.]
The reason Nakafeero and her group of Ugandan LGBTQ refugees moved from the camp in Kenya to a camp in EAC2 was that the EAC2camp was rumored to give some refugees access to asylum in the US and other countries. They were not wrong about this. Some refugees did get access to the US, and right now some are interviewed by Canadian representatives.
Advocate explains how new U.S. immigration policies under the Trump administration are putting LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in extreme danger by enabling their deportation to countries where they could be imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
Attorneys and advocates say the government is using third‑country transfer agreements and aggressive courtroom tactics to avoid fully hearing asylum claims, even when applicants have strong evidence of persecution.
It is unclear to me if this also applies to Ugandan refugees in the US, or only refugees from other countries who are to be shipped of to Uganda to have their case handled there.
A major concern is a 2025 agreement allowing the U.S. to send asylum seekers to Uganda, a country whose 2023 Anti‑Homosexuality Act includes life imprisonment and the death penalty for LGBTQ+ people. Lawyers report cases in which queer and transgender migrants from other countries - such as Morocco -are being threatened with transfer to Uganda instead of having their claims adjudicated in the U.S.
"Uganda is not a safe place for LGBTQ people," Bekah Wolf, an attorney with the American Immigration Council who represents LGBTQ+ asylum seekers from multiple countries says.. "The idea that we would send people there to try to adjudicate their protection claims is deeply concerning."
"While the agreement states that transferred individuals will not be returned to their home countries until protection claims are resolved and references international refugee and anti-torture obligations, Wolf said those assurances are largely abstract. The text contains no enforceable standards for evaluating claims, no requirement that Uganda recognize sexual orientation or gender identity as grounds for protection, and no mechanism for independent oversight once a person is transferred."
Let me add that the threat goes beyond public policies in Uganda. Nakafeero fled because her mother and sister were killed by local citizens who were looking for Nakafeero, who had committed the "crime" of being a lesbian. The homophobia and transphobia runs deep.
Per Koch
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