RIETI, Italy (AP) — Ella Anthony knew it was time to leave her native Nigeria when she escaped an abusive and forced marriage, only to face angry relatives who threatened to hand her over to police because she was gay.
Since Nigeria criminalizes same-sex relationships, Anthony fled a possible prison sentence and headed with his partner to Libya in 2014 and then to Italy, where they both gained asylum. Your claim? That they had a well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution in their country.
While many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa and the Middle East escape war, conflict and poverty, a growing number are fleeing possible prison sentences and death sentences in their home countries due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, advocates say.
And despite the enormous obstacles to obtaining asylum on LGBTQ+ grounds, Anthony and his partner, Doris Ezuruike Chinonso. They are proof that it can be done, even as the challenges continue to be significant for so-called “rainbow refugees” like them.
“Certainly life here in Italy is not 100% what we want. But let’s say it’s 80% better than in my country,” said Chinonso, 34, with Anthony beside her at his home in Rieti, north of Rome. In Nigeria, “if we are lucky, we end up in prison. If you’re unlucky, they kill you,” she said.
“Here you can live however you want,” she said.
Most European countries do not keep statistics on the number of migrants who cite anti-LGBTQ+ persecution as a reason for seeking refugee protection under international law. But non-governmental organizations tracking the phenomenon say the numbers are rising as countries pass or tighten anti-homosexuality laws — a trend highlighted in the celebration, on Friday, of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
To date, more than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws in force, most of them in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.
“The end result is people trying to flee these countries to find safe haven elsewhere,” said Kimahli Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, which provides financial, legal and logistical support to LGBTQ+ people in need of asylum assistance.
In an interview, Powell said his organization received about 15,000 requests for assistance last year, up from about 9,500 the year before. One-tenth of these 2023 requests, or about 1,500, came from Uganda, which passed an anti-homosexuality law that year that allows the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and up to 14 years in prison for “attempted aggravated homosexuality.”
Nigeria also criminalizes consensual same-sex relations between adults and the public display of affection between same-sex couples, as well as restricts the work of groups that advocate for homosexuals and their rights, according to Human Rights Watch. In regions of Nigeria where Sharia law is in force, LGBTQ+ people can face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty.
Anthony, 37, said it was precisely the threat of arrest that forced her to leave. She said her family sold her into marriage, but that she left the relationship because her husband repeatedly abused her. When she returned home, her brother and uncles threatened to hand her over to the police because she was gay. Fear and alienation led her first to attempt suicide and then to accept a drug dealer’s offer to pay for her passage to Europe.
“At a certain point, I couldn’t take all this suffering,” Anthony said through tears. “When this man told me I had to leave the village, I accepted immediately.”
After arriving in Libya, Anthony and Chinonso paid the traffickers for the risky boat trip across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where they both sought asylum as members of a group – LGBTQ+ people – who faced persecution in Nigeria. Under refugee regulations, asylum seekers can receive international protection on the basis of being “members of a particular social group”.
But the process is by no means easy, straightforward or guaranteed. Privacy concerns limit the types of questions about sexual orientation that can be asked of migrants during the asylum interview process. Social taboos and reluctance to openly identify as homosexual or transgender mean that some migrants may not provide information immediately. Ignorance by asylum interviewers about anti-gay laws in countries of origin can result in unsuccessful applications, according to the EU Asylum Agency, which helps EU countries implement asylum standards.
As a result, there is no comprehensive data on how many migrants seek or obtain asylum in the EU for LGBTQ+ reasons. Based on estimates reported by NGOs working with potential refugees, the numbers in each EU country ranged from two to three in Poland in 2016, 500 in Finland between 2015-2017 and 80 in Italy between 2012-2017, according to a report 2017. by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.
An EU directive grants special protection to people vulnerable due to sexual discrimination, prescribing “special procedural guarantees” in countries that receive them. However, it does not specify what these guarantees involve and implementation is uneven. As a result, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers do not always find protected environments when they enter the EU.
“We are talking about people who unfortunately are victims of a double stigma: being a migrant and being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community,” said lawyer Marina De Stradis.
Even within Italy, options vary widely from region to region, with the better-funded north offering more services than the less developed south. In the capital Rome, there are only 10 beds specifically designated for LGBTQ+ migrants, said Antonella Ugirashebuja, an activist with the Arcigay association.
She said the lack of special protections often has a more negative impact on migrant women than men and can be especially dangerous for lesbians.
“Lesbians who leave Africa often, or more frequently, end up in prostitution and sexual exploitation networks because they do not have (economic) support from their families,” she said. “The family considers that they are people who should be removed, rejected… Especially in countries where this is punishable by law.”
Anthony and Chinonso consider themselves lucky: they live in an elegant apartment in Rieti with their dog Paddy and dream of starting a family even if Italy does not allow gay marriage.
Chinonso, who studied medicine in Nigeria, is now a health and social worker. Anthony works at the deli counter at a Carrefour supermarket in Rome. She wishes she could continue working as a film editor, but she is happy.
“It gave me the opportunity to grow,” she said.
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AP journalist Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.
