Shana Tabak and Rachel Levitan, ‘LGBTI Migrants in Immigration Detention: A Global Perspective’, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2014

Abstract

In recent years, the state practice of detaining migrants has come under close examination for the multiple ways in which detention is likely compromise the human rights of detainees. With this Article we turn our attention to the special concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (“LGBTI”) detained migrants, a subgroup of vulnerable detainees that has largely remained invisible in detention systems across the globe. Some of these individuals may be refugees seeking asylum based on previous persecution experienced due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, or on other grounds of persecution listed under the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees; others may simply be migrants who left their home countries for other reasons and who are then detained. Regardless, when placed in detention, sexual minority or gender nonconforming migrants often face unique challenges in which their human rights may be compromised.