Research Information System
ISTSS 35th Annual Meeting Trauma, Recovery and Resilience: Charting a Course Forward, Massachusetts, United States Of America, 14 - 16 November 2019, pp.353-354, (Summary Text)
By the January 2018, there are 20 million refugees and 3 million asylum seekers around the world.
LGBTI refugees, by being both sexual and ethnic minority are at higher risk of experiencing sexual
violence. In addition to previous trauma and unacceptability issues in a new country, ongoing fear of
violence and sense of helplessness is causing the development of psychiatric disorders like PTSD,
depression etc. The aim of this presentation is to discuss legal protection and community based protection
structures over 3 cases of LGBTI asylum seekers who had immigrated to Turkey because they were
threatened by their sexual orientation/identity in their own country. All three cases have stated to be
exposed to sexual assault from perpatrators both in their country and the host country. Our three cases were a Syrian man who was raped in his host country and threatened so far, an Iranian who was raped
several times, mostly exposed to opportunistic abuse in daily life, an Afghan refugee who was raped by
an other refugee regularly in a shelter where they have been replaced by United Nations as he claimed.
Because of the limited time of accomodation, poverty, vulnerability for assault and double stigmatization
by being both refugee and LGBTI, resettlement in a safe country is a priority according to the
international law.