To be granted asylum in Sweden, LGBTQ refugees need to prove to Swedish immigration authorities and judiciaries that they belong to this community, that they fear the persecution of … read moretheir sexuality, and that such fear is well-founded. However, the outcome of their claims is mainly dependent on the existence of usually non-existent evidence. And a need to thoroughly describe something they've been forced to hide their whole life, often with a cultural and language barrier. Each year the West Pride festival is held in Gothenburg, Sweden, focusing on creating safe spaces for the LGBTQ community. This year, West Pride and design agency AKQA have created the Ambassadors of Pride campaign to try to change a system that wrongly sends back LGBTQ refugees to a lifetime of persecution and death. The campaign highlights six different LGBTQ refugees' stories about their way through the Swedish asylum process. Not only does the campaign focus on raising awareness for this issue, but West Pride is giving the asylum seekers official titles to strengthen their credibility of being in the LGBTQ community, naming them Ambassadors of Pride and Honorary Members of West Pride. Additionally, West Pride is working with lawyers to offer free legal counsel for the asylum seekers, as well as offering them a certificate – setting a juridical precedent for future cases. Finally, a petition demanding a just process will be handed over to Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Anders Ygeman on World Refugee Day on June 20th.
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