African LGBT+ refugees plead U.N. for safe shelter after Kenya camp attacks

Dozens of African LGBT+ refugees in northwestern Kenya’s sprawling Kakuma refugee camp pleaded on Thursday with the United Nations to relocate them to a safer place, saying they had suffered 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.

Fifteen people were injured in the Dec. 21 and Jan. 7 incidences and some taken to hospital with wounds to the head and internal bleeding, they said.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation was given photographs of people with bleeding wounds on their head and scars on their limbs, but could not immediately verify the pictures.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said there had been some incidents of vandalism in the camp, but there was no evidence that LGBT+ refugees were specifically targeted.

“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,” said Andrew, a 23-year-old gay man from Uganda who did not want to give his real name.

“We cannot go back to the shelters inside the camp. The other refugees know who we are and will kill us. We ask the U.N. to give us shelter and protection somewhere else - but they are ignoring us.”

The refugees have been staying outside the UNHCR reception center in Kakuma since the first attack on Dec. 21, he said by phone from the camp in Kenya’s remote Turkana county.

The UNHCR’s regional spokesperson Dana Hughes said they were closely monitoring the situation, adding that decisions to relocate refugees were made on an individual basis and required authorization from the Kenyan authorities.

“Incidents of shelter vandalism were reported to law enforcement authorities in December, however these attacks were found to be attributed to common petty criminality and were not targeted at any particular individuals,” said Hughes.

The allegation that LGBT+ refugees were attacked on Jan. 7 had not been substantiated, she said.

“Security reports from law enforcement indicated that there was no attack/assault at the venue.”

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.

African countries have some of the most prohibitive laws against homosexuality in the world, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to death.

Although gay sex is punishable with up to 14 years in jail in Kenya, the law is rarely enforced. The east African nation is seen as more tolerant than neighboring Uganda and Tanzania, though discrimination against the LGBT+ community is prevalent.

Gay rights groups say the camps are not safe for LGBT+ refugees and are calling on Kenya to allow them to live in urban areas.

“These persons were relocated out of this camp due to such violence last year, only to be forced to return to this dangerous and volatile situation,” said a statement from Refugee Coalition of East Africa.

“Claims that these attacks do not specifically target LGBTQI refugees are unfounded and patently untrue.”

(This story clarifies response in ninth paragraph to say UNHCR is monitoring the situation)