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“Queer Refugees Deutschland” Participates in Online-Symposium “COVID-19 & Queer Asylum”

On 29 April the symposium “COVID-19 & Queer Asylum” of the network “Queer European Asylum” took place as a virtual seminar with four panels. The international conference focused on the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Refugee and non-refugee participants from the UK, Italy and Germany discussed various aspects of their work. Among them were Lilith Raza from the project “Queer Refugees Deutschland” for the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD) and Philipp Braun, who supports the LSVD on a voluntary basis.

The online conference dealt with four topics: In Panel 1, moderated by the Council of Europe, speakers from the UK, Italy and Germany discussed “A European Perspective on COVID-19 and Queer Asylum”. Panel 2 was moderated by Danijel Benjamin Ćubelić from the City of Heidelberg and focused on the topic “Isolation and Trauma”. Lilith Raza, who advises refugees and institutions all over Germany for the LSVD, contributed to the situation of queer refugees in the time of Covid-19. Panel 3 “Access to Community and Health Support” dealt with the work with queer refugees from the perspective of migrants themselves. It was moderated by Harpreet Kaur Cholia from the Hessian Refugee Council. Philipp Braun from LSVD moderated Panel 4, which was a “Legal Information Session”. Here, a Frankfurt lawyer and an employee of the Bochum LSBTI counselling centre Rosa Strippe discussed numerous questions of German asylum law that are of importance for queer refugees.

More information and the complete video recordings of the four panels can be found on the website of the Queer European Asylum network.