All the available evidence suggests that the German government rejects lesbian asylum cases at a higher rate than those of gays after the first interview, and perhaps as many as 95% of asylum applications filed by lesbians racialized as Black. We cannot know for sure because the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) does not maintain a separate register for LGBTQI+ asylum cases. In contrast, the Germany-wide rejection rate for LGBTQI+ individuals seeking asylum is 50% and for heterosexual women 30%.
This enormous difference suggests that lesbians face specific challenges when seeking refugee protection in Germany. This particularly applies to one of the most vulnerable cohorts within the German asylum system – lesbian women racialised as Black.
Lesbians should not be finding this as difficult as they do. In line with EU Directive 2011/95/EU, Germany recognises human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for seeking asylum. Germany also recognised that gender-based violence could meet the legal definition of persecution as understood by the 1951 Refugee Convention when it ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2011. This has been a boon primarily for heterosexual women asylum seekers. BAMF statistics show that while over 50% of women seeking asylum have successfully gained refugee status as victims of gender-specific persecution (i.e. forced marriage, FGM, honor killing, rape, domestic violence, or sex trafficking), lesbians still struggle to validate violence experienced on the basis of their sexuality as a reason for refugee protection.
