Lukac, ‘LGBT Asylum Seekers in Sweden’, 2017

Enes Lukac, ‘LGBT Asylum Seekers in Sweden: Conceptualising Queer Migration Beyond the Concept of “Safe Third Country”’, An Oxford Research report, July 2017

Abstract

The past few years the debate on asylum in Sweden has focused on refugees from countries with ongoing armed conflicts. However, LGBTQ persons’ need for protection can be very different and includes both countries with hostile laws and countries that are not able to ensure sufficient protection from persecution. This study attempts to illuminate the situation for LGBT asylum seekers, especially from the Western Balkans, to contribute to the knowledge about their situation, in the context of existing laws and the national immigration system. This report aims to reflect on the issue of ‘safe vs.non-safe countries’ in relation to LGBT individuals who are in the asylum process in Sweden, by introducing their personal experiences of being discriminated against and persecuted in their home countries because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The country case studies chosen for this comparative report are two Western Balkans countries, namely Serbia and Macedonia, with the personal narratives based on one respondent from Serbia and two from Macedonia. The research has been done by Enes Lukac at Oxford Research in collaboration with Swedish LGBTQ organisation RFSL.