Hamburg's refugee shelters fail to shield LSBTIQ+ individuals from abuse
This likely isn't even a matter of ill will. More probably, it's a perceived lack of urgency and poor organization on the part of Hamburg's interior authority. But for those affected, that makes no difference: after the sudden closure of the initial reception center on Kaltenkircher Straße in Altona, it is precisely the most vulnerable—those in greatest need of protection—who have been left exposed.
Eight LSBTIQ* individuals were transferred to state-run follow-up accommodations. For years, advisors in refugee and migration support work have warned that such facilities often expose them to physical violence or verbal abuse from other refugees and staff.
In 2023, an initiative demanded in an open letter to Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) that dedicated shelters for LSBTIQ+ individuals be established from day one. Yet the following year, local residents' protests blocked the opening of just such a facility in Winterhude. In response, the authority began converting a small number of spaces for those with special protection needs in an existing shelter. According to Carola Ensslen, a politician with the Left Party, this has so far yielded just one or two spots—woefully inadequate.
"There are grand announcements, but little follows," Ensslen says. The Senate has pledged that, starting in February, two- and four-bed rooms with private bathrooms for individuals requiring special protection will be created in a shelter in Horn. Ensslen isn't holding her breath.
No one claims it's an easy task to provide the most vulnerable refugees with the protection they need—and to which they are entitled under the Istanbul Convention. Especially not at a time when their very presence is being called into question. All the more reason it would be a welcome shift if Hamburg stepped up and gave this issue the urgency it deserves: because that protection is desperately needed.
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