The leftist German government is looking to expand the criteria for a positive asylum claim for LGBT migrants, with future LGBT asylum seekers being able to claim asylum regardless if they are publically open regarding their sexuality or gender identity or private about it.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) announced this week that it would be changing the criteria as of October of this year in order to scrap its “behavioural prognosis” which assumes that those needing asylum are open and public regarding their sexuality or gender identity in their home countries and therefore prosecuted for it.
From October, even those who are private about their sexuality and come from a country that has laws against homosexuality or could be persecuted for their sexual orientation could be granted a positive asylum decision in Germany, the tabloid Bild reports.
“The decision on the risk of return is to be based on the assumption that the applicant will openly live out their sexual orientation and/or gender identity upon return to the home country,” the previous BAMF instruction states.
The Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) reacted to the new criteria positively, stating that the “behavioural prognosis” was “inhumane” and stated, “Only in this way can LGBTQ+ refugees realize their right to live in safety — as discreetly or openly as they themselves want.”
In prior years, some European countries have been sceptical regarding asylum seekers claiming to be homosexual in order to get refugee status. In 2018, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that asylum seekers should not be psychologically tested in order to determine the validity of their claims after a Nigerian seeking asylum in Hungary had his application rejected following a psychological report.
In September of that same year, Austria rejected asylum for an Afghan man who claimed to be homosexual after the Austrian Federal Office for Asylum (BFA) declared the man not likely to be homosexual as there was no homosexual pornography on his mobile phone.