“We seem to be living in a world where there are more and more of these crises popping up. And there’s not enough funding to support everything or it gets moved from one to another,” states Anja Limon, the Director of Programmes at The Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM). ORAM is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and empowering LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees.
ORAM’s work includes providing protection such as shelter and cash assistance, empowering the community through their economic empowerment programmes, and sustaining the sector through building the capacity of both grassroots LGBTQI organisations and larger humanitarian actors.
We caught up with Anja about the ways that LGBTQI people are disproportionately affected in emergency situations, and the work that needs to be done to ensure the humanitarian sector is encompassing of all, relieving the pressure from local grassroots LGBTQI organisations.
To provide some context, could you discuss the ways in which displaced LGBTIQ individuals are disproportionately affected during times of crisis?
So one big thing is isolation. If we compare them to others who are fleeing because of war etcetera, people usually flee with their family and friends. Whereas LGBTIQ asylum seekers sadly usually flee alone because they’re also fleeing often from their family and from their friends, in addition to fleeing from a humanitarian crisis.
That isolation not only makes the journey itself a lot more dangerous, there’s a lot more risk of falling into the hands of traffickers, smugglers being exploited on the way. But then also when you reach your destination, isolation also leads to not getting information as well. As a displaced person, you may not know what organisations to reach out to or what services are available to you. Individuals will also usually flee their home country at a very young age, which again, leads to a lot of vulnerabilities.
“As a displaced person, you may not know what organisations to reach out to or what services are available to you. Individuals will also usually flee their home country at a very young age, which again, leads to a lot of vulnerabilities.”
At the same time, of course, a lot of organisations do not have specialised services for queer displaced communities, and even if they’re accessible, are they really meeting the needs of the community?
And then one other thing is also that double or triple marginalisation. Everyone fleeing their home country will already be marginalised, based on the fact that they’ll be a foreigner in the country that they’re in. Whatever legal status you have, you’ll always have language barriers. Then putting on top of that your sexual orientation or gender identity expression, it leads to those additional marginalisations that just exacerbate your existing vulnerabilities.
Looking more at the humanitarian organisations and wider response, how are LGBTIQ people treated by the wider humanitarian response?
There are different reasons that large humanitarian actors might not support LGBTIQ displaced people, and that won’t always be not wanting to, it’s often not knowing how to, not having worked with the community before.
Most humanitarian organisations have non-discrimination policies in place, the framework high level will be there that says they should support and work with everyone, whether that actually trickles down to the work actually being implemented, that’s another question. And that will really be up to the frontline workers, the caseworkers, those who are on the ground, working face to face with people in displacement and emergencies.
A lot of time what we hear is, why should there be specialised services for LGBTIQ refugees? And I think it’s often misunderstood, we’re not saying they need to be prioritised in a way over everyone else. What we’re saying is they need to have equal access to the opportunities that everyone else has.
So when we’re talking about specialised services, we’re not boosting them above everyone else. We’re understanding that they don’t have the same access and don’t get the same support as everyone else. And that’s often what humanitarian organisations don’t seem to understand when working with organisations working with LGBTIQ displaced persons.
“Everyone likes to throw LGBTQI people together, but of course, everyone has their specific needs. If you’re talking about gay men, trans women, there’s a lot of diversity within the community. And that’s important to understand, especially in emergencies as well, because those different vulnerabilities will be exacerbated again by the crisis.”
Developing on that thought, what work needs to be done to support displaced LGBTIQ people, especially during times of crisis?
When we say providing tools through these trainings with humanitarian actors, we are really providing them with the understanding they need so that they can then be those first responders on the ground. It’s about taking that approach of saying, well, everyone should get access to the services that you’re providing. Everyone likes to throw LGBTQI people together, but of course, everyone has their specific needs. If you’re talking about gay men, trans women, there’s a lot of diversity within the community. And that’s important to understand, especially in emergencies as well, because those different vulnerabilities will be exacerbated again by the crisis.
Another thing is really building those referral pathways and relationships between grassroots LGBTQ organisations and larger humanitarian organisations so that they can work together. Not everyone needs to do everything themselves.We’re a very small organisation, and we rely heavily on partnerships. And we partner with the most local grassroots organisations as well as the larger humanitarian organisations.
“There needs to be more support for operational funding especially for LGBTQI grassroots organisations.”
And with situations like Ukraine, we witnessed grassroots organisations take on humanitarian roles overnight due to the lack of support from bigger humanitarian organisations. Considering this, what structural support do you believe is necessary to ensure the financial stability of these grassroots organisations during crises?
Yeah, I mean, interesting when you’re talking about what happened in Ukraine, but also in Poland, where grassroots organisations suddenly had to become humanitarian organisations.
I suppose the issue is the funding is all project based, and as sadly is the issue, there’s very little operational funding. So very quickly, it would mean the organisation would completely change, you’d bring on a lot of new staff who would be working more on humanitarian crisis emergency support, and you’d completely lose your identity as that national advocacy organisation that you were supposed to be in the first place. There needs to be more support for operational funding especially for LGBTQI grassroots organisations.
There is expertise humanitarian organisations won’t have because they don’t necessarily understand the semantics around working with LGBTIQ communities. So how can we foster the knowledge LGBTQI organisations have of working with LGBTIQ communities and bring that into humanitarian organisations so that they can learn from them. We’re talking about networking events, conferences, where you’re bringing these two very different stakeholders together.
It’s about learning from each other so the humanitarian workers or even the state can be the one doing the work, and it doesn’t fall on LGBTIQ grassroots organisations. But to be able to do this work, of course, you always need funding.
What can we all do to better support LGBTQI people during these times of crisis? Is there any message you would like to leave us on?
One thing is really just raising awareness around this. I think so many people who don’t work in this field will think it doesn’t matter who you are, if you are a refugee, that’s your identity. And that’s all that matters. So raising awareness about everyone having their own needs and their own specific challenges when it comes to a humanitarian crisis and specifically, the challenges that LGBTIQ people face.
You can learn more about ORAM here.