LGBTQ+ Migrants Find Hope in Italy’s Asylum System

Ella Anthony knew it was time to leave her native Nigeria when she escaped an abusive, forced marriage only to face angry relatives who threatened to turn her in to the police because she was gay.

Since Nigeria criminalizes same-sex relationships, Anthony fled a possible prison term and headed with her partner to Libya in 2014 and then Italy, where they both won asylum. Their claim? A well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution back home.

While many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Italy from Africa and the Middle East are escaping war, conflict, and poverty, an increasing number are fleeing possible prison terms and death sentences in their home countries due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, advocates say.

Despite significant obstacles to winning asylum on LGBTQ+ grounds, Anthony and her partner, Doris Ezuruike Chinonso, are proof that it can be done, even if the challenges remain significant for so-called “rainbow refugees” like them.

“If You’re Lucky, You End Up in Prison”

“Certainly, life here in Italy isn’t 100% what we want. But let’s say it’s 80% better than in my country,” Chinonso, 34, said with Anthony by her side at their home in Rieti, north of Rome.

In Nigeria, “if you’re lucky, you end up in prison. If you’re not lucky, they kill you,” she said. “Here you can live as you like.”

Most European countries don’t keep statistics on the number of migrants who claim anti-LGBTQ+ persecution as a reason for seeking refugee protection under international law. However, non-governmental organizations tracking the phenomenon say the numbers are rising as countries pass or toughen anti-homosexuality laws. This trend is highlighted on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.

To date, more than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, most of them in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

Rising Need for Support

“The ultimate result is people trying to flee these countries to find safe haven elsewhere,” said Kimahli Powell, chief executive of Rainbow Railroad, which provides financial, legal, and logistical support to LGBTQ+ people needing asylum assistance.

Powell noted his organization received about 15,000 requests for assistance last year, up from some 9,500 the year before. One-tenth of those 2023 requests, or about 1,500, came from Uganda, which passed an anti-homosexuality law allowing 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 public displays of affection between same-sex couples. In regions where Sharia law is enforced, LGBTQ+ people can face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty, according to Human Rights Watch.

Anthony, 37, said it was the threat of prison that compelled her to leave. Her family had sold her into marriage, but she left the relationship due to repeated abuse. When she returned home, her brother and uncles threatened to turn her into the police because she was gay. The fear and alienation drove her first to attempt suicide, and then to accept a trafficker’s offer to pay for passage to Europe.

“At a certain point, I couldn’t take all these sufferings,” Anthony said through tears. “When this man told me that I should abandon the village, I immediately accepted.”

The Difficult Journey to Asylum

After arriving in Libya, Anthony and Chinonso paid traffickers for the risky boat trip across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where they both claimed asylum as members of a persecuted group – LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria. According to refugee norms, applicants for asylum can be granted international protection based on being a “member of a particular social group.”

But the process is neither easy nor straightforward. Privacy concerns limit the types of questions about sexual orientation that migrants can be asked during the asylum interview process. Social taboos and reluctance to openly identify as gay or transgender mean some migrants might not volunteer the information immediately. Ignorance on the part of asylum interviewers about anti-gay laws in countries of origin can result in unsuccessful claims, according to the EU Agency for Asylum, which helps EU countries implement asylum norms.

As a result, no comprehensive data exists about how many migrants seek or win asylum in the EU on LGBTQ+ grounds. Based on estimates from NGOs working with would-be refugees, the numbers in individual EU countries ranged from two to three in Poland in 2016 to 500 in Finland from 2015-2017 and 80 in Italy from 2012-2017, according to a 2017 report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

An EU directive grants special protection for people made vulnerable due to sexual discrimination, prescribing “special procedural guarantees” in countries that receive them. However, it doesn’t specify what those guarantees involve, and implementation is uneven. As a result, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers don’t always find protected environments once in the EU.

Challenges and Hopes for the Future

“We’re talking about people who are unfortunately victims of a double stigma: being a migrant and being members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” said lawyer Marina De Stradis.

Even within Italy, the 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 impacts female migrants more negatively than males and can be especially dangerous for lesbians.

“Lesbians leaving Africa often, or more frequently, end up in prostitution and sexual exploitation networks because they lack (economic) support from their families,” she said. “The family considers them people to be pushed away, to be rejected… Especially in countries where this is punishable by law.”

Anthony and Chinonso consider themselves lucky: They live in a neat flat in Rieti with their dog Paddy, and dream of starting a family even if Italy doesn’t allow gay marriage.

Chinonso, who was studying medicine in Nigeria, is now a social and health worker. Anthony works at the deli counter in a Carrefour supermarket in Rome. She would have liked to continue working as a film editor, but she is content.

“It gave me the opportunity to grow,” she said.