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How does the Finnish Immigration Service investigate belonging to a sexual or gender minority?

Migri
Publication date 10.2.2017 10.35
Press release

Some asylum seekers give belonging to a sexual or gender minority as a reason for their application.

Sexual orientation or belonging to a sexual minority are not automatically grounds for granting asylum. The requirement for granting asylum is that the person in question would risk persecution for belonging, in particular, to this social group if he or she returned to his or her home country.

Why does the Finnish Immigration Service ask an asylum seeker additional questions about sexual orientation?

The Finnish Immigration Service has the obligation to evaluate the credibility of the asylum seeker’s story in all cases, regardless of the reasons given by the asylum seeker. The asylum seeker is asked to tell what he or she is afraid of in his or her home country, and the interviewer will help him or her along by asking questions.

If the asylum seeker refers to belonging to a sexual or gender minority he or she is asked to talk about the matter further. It is a question of how the asylum seeker’s human rights are realised in his or her home country and evaluating if belonging to a minority leads to his or her rights being restricted in a differently way than the rest of the population.

How does belonging to a sexual or gender minority affect the asylum investigation?

When deciding on the asylum applications of people belonging to a sexual or gender minority, the agency evaluates whether the asylum seeker has credibly shown that he or she belongs to the minority in question. The asylum seeker is expected to be able to describe his or her feelings and experiences on how belonging to a sexual minority is manifested in his or her life. In addition, the asylum seeker should show that he or she has reason to fear persecution in his or her home country for these reasons.

Belonging to a sexual or gender minority is a permanent part of a person’s identity and no one can be required to hide that from the authorities of their home country to ensure their safety.

How does the Finnish Immigration Service know how to evaluate a person’s sexuality?

The Finnish Immigration Service has collaborated with Finnish LGBTIQ+ rights organisation Seta ry. Seta has educated the personnel of the agency’s Asylum Unit and it also collaborates with reception centres.

The agency employs Senior Advisers who have received the European Asylum Support Office’s (EASO) instructor training on interviewing vulnerable groups, such as gender and sexual minorities.

The evaluation is not performed based on individual answers but the matter is looked into extensively during the asylum interview. The story is essential, that is, how the person talks about his or her sexual identity. The credibility of this is evaluated in the decision.

Sometimes an asylum seeker who has received a negative decision says at the appeal stage that he or she has discovered his or her homosexual identity.

If the matter comes up at the appeal stage it is investigated in the same way as during the application stage. In addition, the agency finds out why the asylum seeker has not disclosed this earlier. Reasons for this can be, for example, that the asylum seeker is afraid and ashamed as well as that he or she does not know the meaning of this matter to the process.

Unfortunately there are also some unfounded claims that asylum seekers make to better their chances at the appeal stage. That is why we have to ask asylum seekers more detailed questions.

Are asylum seekers asked intimate questions about their sex life?

No. If we are made aware of something like that, we will address it immediately. No evidence of homosexual sex is requested, and we do not accept videos relating to that from asylum seekers.

Can a negative decision be made by a person who interviewed the asylum seeker alone?

No, it cannot. If the presented decision on the application is negative, at least two people at the agency processes it.

Further information for the media:

Press and Communications Services, Finnish Immigration Service, tel. +358 295 433 037, e-mail: firstname.lastname@migri.fi

Press release