CURRENTS
BORDERLINES
Over the rainbowBeing ‘flamboyant’, public
displays of affection and
frequenting gay discos, are
key to a successful asylum
claim for Muslim LGBTQI
people seeking refuge in
Germany, a recent study has
found.
This is unproblematic
for some – asylum-seekers
with middle or upper-class
backgrounds, who were
assigned male at birth and
were activists in their home
country are likely to be
successful.
But it’s a different story for
those who do not conform
to a Western stereotype of
‘gayness’.
Anthropologist Mengia
Tschalaer has recorded how
people who were not ‘out’
at the time of their asylum
interview or found it hard
to speak openly about their
sexuality or gender identity
usually had their claim
rejected – as did those who
were married or had children.
Tschalaer – who spoke
to LGBTQI refugees and
asylum-seekers from Tunisia,
Somalia, Syria, Iran and
Pakistan, as well as law
professionals and support
groups – also reported
that those who ‘portrayed
Germany as a liberal,
tolerant country and their
Muslim countries of origin
as homophobic and morally
“backward”’ were more
likely to receive protection.
She concludes that
Germany – and Europe – is
some way off a genuinely
inclusive asylum system
and suggests training
decision-makers, judges
and translators around
LGBTQI issues as one route
to get there.nin.tl/QueerLiberalismBRAZIL
LAW AND DISORDER
On 20 September 2019, eight-
year-old Ágatha Félix died
after being shot in the back in
her local neighbourhood, in
Rio de Janeiro. Four days later,
11-year-old Victória Ferreira
was shot in the leg on her way
home from school.
Episodes like these are not
exceptional. Rio residents
know that other innocents will
die the same way as Ágatha
Félix.
This year has been bad
even by the violent standards
of Rio de Janeiro state.
Police violence now factors
among the leading causes
of death for the poorest. In
2019, there were 1,075 police
killings in just six months.
In August 2019, they killed
at least five people per day in
the state of Rio; and police
were responsible for 40 per
cent of all homicides in the
city during the first quarter
of the year, according to
advocacy group the Rio de
Janeiro Observatory on Public
Security.
Civil society groups report
that Rio’s police have never
killed so many people in such
a short period of time: this
rate of killing is unparalleled
in Brazil and the world.
The terrifying numbers
point to a phenomenon that
researchers have badged the
‘state-ization of death’. But
while the perpetrators are
increasingly police officers
rather than gang members,
the profile of the victims
has hardly changed: 99 per
cent are men; 75 per cent are
black; 82 per cent have only
completed their education to
primary-school level.
The historical reasonsfor lethal police violence
are numerous and complex.
They include deep-seated
institutional and society-wide
racism, an abusive culture
within the police force and a
total lack of accountability,
in part a legacy of Brazil’s
military dictatorship that ran
from 1964 to 1985. But it’s the
‘shoot to kill’ policies of Rio’s
new governor Wilson Witzel,
an ally of President Bolsonaro,
that lie at the heart of this
recent upsurge.
The UN and the
Organization of American
States have recently given
Witzel, a former federal
judge, a warning for violating
the human rights of Rio’s
poorest population. Among
his security policies, he has
explicitly authorized the
use of lethal force against
‘criminal suspects’, promising
to ‘slaughter’ anyone carrying
a gun.
Witzel has sanctioned the
use of helicopters as shooting8 NEW INTERNATIONALIST
Police are now responsible for 40
per cent of all homicides in Rio.
RATAO DINIZ/ALAMY