The IDC Core Position provides the basis for the IDC’s advocacy efforts. It was developed in 2005, with the understanding that additional research, positions and resources would need to be developed to keep up with the ever changing realities on the ground of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants.
Here we present the IDC Position Paper on LGBTI Persons in Immigration Detention.
It is the position of the IDC that vulnerable individuals should never be placed in immigration detention. Immigration detention is particularly harmful to individuals who are already at a heightened risk of discrimination, abuse and exploitation, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) persons.
Within places of immigration detention, LGBTI persons face heightened levels of harassment, discrimination, psychological abuse, physical and sexual violence by detention staff as well as other detainees.
This Position Paper provides an overview of the serious impacts of detention on LGBTI persons.The paper then analyses the international human rights framework applicable to LGBTI refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons and migrants at risk of immigration detention. Finally, this paper examines a number of positive alternative to detention practices, which may be employed to address the specific needs of LGBTI persons. It ends by making a number of recommendations for State policy makers and those working to end the unnecessary immigration detention of LGBTI persons or to implement LGBTI-sensitive alternatives.