StopQueerDeportations

LGBTQIA+ rights, safety and return

When is a country truly safe?

On paper, the rights of LGBTQIA+ people have improved in many parts of Europe in recent years. Yet significant differences remain between countries – and legal protection does not always mean safety in everyday life.

For most people, these differences are a matter of rights and equality. For an LGBTQIA+ refugee or asylum seeker, however, they can determine whether returning to a country is genuinely safe.

The Rainbow Map helps make part of that reality visible.

The Rainbow Map

ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map compares 49 European countries each year based on their laws and policies affecting LGBTQIA+ people.

It assesses areas including equality and non-discrimination, family rights, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, bodily integrity, civil society space and asylum.

The map shows just how widely the position of LGBTQIA+ people can vary from one European country to another.

Select a country for more information or use Compare to compare countries directly.

Select up to 3 countries and compare all available data.

OVERALL SCORE

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INFORMATION

About the Rainbow Map

The ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map annually assesses and ranks 49 European countries on the basis of laws and policies that directly affect the human rights of LGBTI people. Countries are scored on a scale from 0%, representing severe violations of human rights and discrimination, to 100%, representing full equality and respect for human rights.

The assessment covers seven key areas: equality and non-discrimination; family; hate crime and hate speech; legal gender recognition; intersex bodily integrity; civil society space; and asylum.

The interactive Rainbow Map Explorer provided on this website uses the publicly available Rainbow Map dataset published by ILGA-Europe. It enables visitors to explore the available data by country and category, examine individual criteria, and compare countries in an accessible and interactive format.

It is important to understand what the Rainbow Map scores represent. They measure the extent to which a country’s laws and policies protect the rights and equality of LGBTI people. A country’s score should therefore not be interpreted as an assessment of the personal safety of an individual LGBTI person, nor does a higher score necessarily mean that discrimination, violence or persecution do not occur in practice.

For a broader understanding of the situation in individual countries, the Rainbow Map should be considered alongside ILGA-Europe’s Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People in Europe and Central Asia. While the Rainbow Map provides a quantitative benchmark of legislative and policy developments, the Annual Review provides qualitative context about developments and lived realities in each country.

Data source and attribution: The underlying Rainbow Map data is collected, assessed and published by ILGA-Europe. Stichting Queer Sanctuary Foundation is not the original collector, verifier, processor or recipient of this underlying data. This website provides an independent interactive presentation of the publicly available dataset and does not claim ownership of, or alter, the original source data.

For the methodology, criteria, original Rainbow Map and further information about ILGA-Europe, visit the official ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map website.

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Dataset Loading… Official source: ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map ↗

The Rainbow Map ranks European countries based on laws and policies affecting LGBTI people.

Stichting Queer Sanctuary Foundation is not the original collector, verifier, data processor or recipient of the underlying Rainbow Map data. This website only displays the publicly available dataset published by ILGA-Europe and does not alter the source data. Scores concern laws and policies and should not be interpreted as individual safety assessments.

A score does not tell the whole story

The Rainbow Map provides important information, but a score on a map can never capture the full reality of life in a country.

The map primarily assesses laws and policies. Strong legal protections do not automatically mean that someone can live openly as an LGBTQIA+ person without fear.

Discrimination, social exclusion, threats and violence may still occur. Protection from the police and public authorities may be inadequate, and everyday reality can differ significantly depending on the region, community, family or individual circumstances.

That distinction matters.

A country may offer protection on paper while, in practice, an LGBTQIA+ person may still be unable to live freely and safely as who they are.

What does this mean for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers?

Within the Dutch asylum procedure, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) assesses whether a person is in need of protection. This assessment considers the individual’s asylum claim, their personal circumstances and available information about the situation in their country of origin.

However, information showing that LGBTQIA+ people in a particular country may face discrimination, violence or persecution does not automatically mean that every LGBTQIA+ asylum seeker will be granted protection in the Netherlands.

Every application is assessed individually. An asylum procedure may therefore still result in rejection and an obligation to leave the Netherlands if, according to the assessment, it has not been sufficiently established that the individual concerned personally requires protection.

This creates a difficult tension.

Information may be available showing serious risks for LGBTQIA+ people in a country, while an individual asylum procedure may nevertheless result in a decision requiring that person to return.

For the person concerned, this is not a theoretical discussion about legislation, policies or percentages.

It is about what happens when someone actually returns.

Can they live openly? Have a relationship? Express who they are? Seek help when they face threats or violence? Receive protection from the authorities? Or does staying safe in practice mean having to hide who they are or whom they love once again?

When is a country truly safe if someone cannot live there freely and safely as who they are?

StopQueerDeportations – Safety knows no borders 🏳️‍🌈

It is precisely this question that has made StopQueerDeportations an important campaign within the work of Stichting Queer Sanctuary Foundation from the very beginning.

Because for an LGBTQIA+ person, deportation does not automatically mean a safe return.

A country may appear safe on paper while someone may, because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, face discrimination, exclusion, threats, violence or persecution there.

Through StopQueerDeportations, we want to make that reality visible.

We raise awareness of the risks LGBTQIA+ people may face upon return. We want to give individual stories a voice, increase public and political awareness, and show the real-life consequences that a decision to return someone can have.

Where it is within our capacity, we want to support people and contribute to an approach in which decisions are not based solely on general information about a country, but in which personal safety and individual circumstances are genuinely placed at the centre.

Deportation should never mean that someone has to fear once again because of who they are or whom they love.

A campaign that needs to grow

StopQueerDeportations is still at the beginning of its journey.

Behind the scenes, we are working to develop the campaign further: expanding our information and visibility, building partnerships with other organisations, and exploring ways to provide meaningful support to LGBTQIA+ people facing return or deportation.

At the same time, we want to draw attention to this issue from the very beginning.

Because change starts with being seen and heard.

The more people understand what is happening, share stories and speak out, the harder it becomes to overlook the potential consequences of deportation for LGBTQIA+ people.

That is why you can also support StopQueerDeportations without making a donation.

Share our campaign. Tell others why this issue matters. Help make these stories visible and contribute to the conversation about what safety truly means.

Donations naturally remain vital to the wider work of Stichting Queer Sanctuary Foundation. They help us continue building our organisation, activities and support services, and enable us to pursue our mission sustainably.

Help us make visible what must not be ignored

Behind every asylum procedure, every case file and every decision is a human being.

For us, safety should therefore never be merely an assessment on paper.

It should mean being able to live without constantly fearing for your safety because of your sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. It should mean not having to hide who you are again simply to protect yourself. And it should mean that returning to a country does not result in the loss of fundamental freedom and safety.

No one should be deported for being who they are.
When deportation puts lives at risk, silence is not an option.

StopQueerDeportations. 🏳️‍🌈