Category: activity

“Born illegal”: criminalising LGBTQ+ refugees in Türkiye

Hybrid Lecture, Feb 5th, 10-11:30 CET/ 11-12:30 EET, University of Helsinki and Online (Zoom)

Türkiye hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide, nearly four million, including 3.6 million Syrian refugees. Since 2018, the country has experienced one of the worst economic crises in its history, with hyperinflation, unemployment, and chronic hopelessness widespread. Both the country’s authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and its major opposition parties have sought to blame the country’s economic woes on refugees, migrants, and other minorities, who face widespread daily discrimination from both the authorities and local communities. 

This increasingly hostile and often outright violent atmosphere is most acutely felt by LGBTQ+ refugees in Türkiye, who suffer from rising xenophobic and racist sentiment as well as deeply ingrained and publicly endorsed prejudice against LGBTQ+ people. Both of these trends are actively weaponised by the Turkish authorities to harass and target the LGBTQ+ refugee community.  

This talk will discuss the historical and political context that has led to the rise of anti-refugee and anti-LGBTQ+ politics in Türkiye; the legal environment in which this takes place and explore both the issues LGBTQ+ refugees face as well as the networks of solidarity and mutual aid that they are organising. The talk will also feature a Q&A with the speakers.  

We kindly request you to register your intention to attend online or on-site at the University of Helsinki: https://forms.gle/msS7TR59zp8KuEvw7 

Aws Jubair is a refugee advocate, humanitarian worker and LGBTQ+ activist from Baghdad, Iraq, living and working in Türkiye since 2011. For the past 8 years Aws has been working to serve vulnerable communities. He is co-founder and co-director of four humanitarian projects: The Aman Project which focuses on supporting LGBTQ refugees and advocating for LGBTQ rights in the MENA region; the De-otherize Dialogue Project; United Hands for Refugees, and the Common Sense Initiative.  

Sarı is an activist who has worked on human rights in the MENA region for nearly ten years, focusing on Iran and the Persian Gulf. He is advising and assisting on The Aman Project’s advocacy work. 

 “Aggravated activists”: criminalising protest in Britain, Online Event

Thursday 11th January 15.00-16.30 (EET)  

Mass protest and direct action has seen a resurgence in Britain in recent years. Large numbers of people have vigorously contested police racism and misogyny, state inaction on the climate crisis, deaths at the border and in detention camps, and, most recently, the government’s support for the war on Gaza. 

Successive right-wing governments have pursued increasingly authoritarian responses to this wave of discontent, heedless of the wider impact on civil liberties. Draconian new laws – notably the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 – have been introduced to restrict protest rights, while protesters are increasingly vilified in political discourse and in the media.  

Joseph will discuss the landscape of dissent in Britain, setting it in the context of the history of British policing, its ongoing crisis of legitimacy, and the broader right-wing radicalisation of British politics. The talk will also offer insight into the growth of authoritarian policing and dispersed webs of criminalising legislation across Europe.

The lecture and discussion will be hybrid (on-site and online) in format, and the on-site event will be followed by a reception.  

We kindly request you to register your intention to attend online or on-site at the University of Helsinki: 

https://forms.gle/sY8GEiM1SLDKYbgB8

Joseph Maggs is the Vice-Chair of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), an anti-racist think tank based in London. He is a grassroots organiser, legal researcher and writer, and has previously worked and volunteered across a wide range of human rights and migrant justice organisations, including Liberty and SOAS Detainee Support.