This archive report was first published on 10 January 2020.
Kenya: African LGBT+ Refugees Plead UN for Safe Shelter ¶
Published on January 10, 2020
Dozens of African LGBT+ refugees in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp have pleaded with the United Nations to relocate them to a safer place after suffering violent attacks.
More than 40 LGBT+ refugees from countries including Uganda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo said they were targeted in two homophobic attacks by other refugees in the last three weeks.
According to the refugees, 15 people were injured in the attacks on December 21 and January 7, with some taken to hospital with wounds to the head and internal bleeding.
Andrew, a 23-year-old gay man from Uganda, described the attacks, saying, "They came in large numbers - much more than us. They beat us with sticks and rods, kicked and punched us and told us to leave. They destroyed our shelters."
The refugees have been staying outside the UNHCR reception centre in Kakuma since the first attack on December 21, and are now pleading with the UN to give them shelter and protection somewhere else.
However, the UNHCR's regional spokesperson Dana Hughes said there was no reason to relocate the refugees, stating that incidents of shelter vandalism were reported to law enforcement authorities in December, but were found to be attributed to common petty criminality and not targeted at any particular individuals.
It is not the first time LGBT+ refugees have faced physical violence in Kakuma, a vast camp that is home to more than 180,000 refugees. In December 2018, the UNHCR relocated about 200 LGBT+ refugees from the camp to Nairobi as an emergency measure after a spate of violent attacks against them.
But Kenya requires most refugees to stay in designated camps, and 75 of them were returned to Kakuma in June.
