When Is a Country Truly Safe?

A Map Does Not Tell the Whole Story

The situation of LGBTQIA+ people varies greatly around the world, and also from country to country within Europe. Laws and policies can tell us a great deal about the rights a person has. But they do not always tell us how safe someone actually is.

A country may, on paper, provide strong protection against discrimination. Laws may exist that guarantee equal treatment, criminalise violence and protect LGBTQIA+ people.

But what happens beyond the pages of those laws?

Can someone say who they are without fear? Walk down the street holding hands with their partner? Be open with family, colleagues or neighbours? Report threats or violence and trust that the authorities will provide protection?

That is the difference between rights on paper and safety in real life.

The Rainbow Map as an Important Starting Point

ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map provides valuable information about the legal and policy situation of LGBTQIA+ people in European countries.

The map highlights differences and helps us understand how countries compare on issues such as equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, bodily integrity, space for civil society organisations and asylum.

This makes the Rainbow Map an important source of information.

But no score can capture the full reality of millions of individual lives.

A percentage, for example, does not tell us how safe someone feels in a particular city or region. It does not always tell us how a family reacts when someone comes out. Nor does it tell us what happens when someone is threatened because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression and tries to seek protection.

That is why a map must always be read in context.

Safe Under the Law Does Not Always Mean Safe in Practice

There can be a significant difference between formal rights and everyday reality.

Discrimination can remain deeply rooted in a society even when it is officially prohibited. LGBTQIA+ people may face intimidation, exclusion, threats or violence.

Social and family circumstances can also play a major role. For some people, the danger does not come only from society at large, but from within their immediate environment.

And when someone seeks protection, what ultimately matters is not only whether protection exists under the law, but also whether that protection is genuinely available and effective.

Can someone safely go to the police?

Is a report taken seriously?

Are meaningful measures actually taken in response to threats or violence?

Or does living openly mean constantly having to consider what they say, what they wear, what they do or who they are seen with?

Freedom is not only about having rights. Freedom also means being able to exercise those rights safely.

What Does Safety Mean When Someone Is Returned?

For LGBTQIA+ refugees and asylum seekers, this question takes on even greater significance.

When someone is required to leave the Netherlands following an asylum procedure, the issue is ultimately not only the general situation in a country.

It is about a person who will actually have to return.

Their family.

Their surroundings.

Their visibility.

Their personal history.

And the question of what protection is genuinely available if something happens.

Every asylum application is assessed individually. General information about discrimination, violence or the situation of LGBTQIA+ people therefore does not automatically mean that every LGBTQIA+ asylum seeker will be granted protection.

A procedure may end with a decision requiring the person to return.

It is precisely at that point that the question of safety becomes very concrete.

What does “safe” mean when someone can only live safely by hiding who they are once again?

No One Should Have to Hide Who They Are in Order to Stay Safe

Requiring someone to return to a country should not mean that freedom is possible only for as long as they keep their identity hidden.

Safety should not depend on remaining silent.

Not on hiding a relationship.

Not on avoiding certain places.

Not on changing one’s clothing, behaviour or appearance out of fear of how others may react.

And not on having to go back into the closet in order to avoid danger.

For StopQueerDeportations, one principle is therefore essential:

Being able to survive by hiding who you are is not the same as having the freedom to live safely as yourself.

Behind Every Case Is a Human Being

Discussions about asylum and return involve procedures, assessments, country information and decisions.

That is necessary. But behind those words there is always a human being.

Someone with a name, a history, relationships, fears and plans for the future.

That is why we believe that questions about return should not focus solely on what a country has formally established in law, but also on the individual’s personal circumstances and the actual risks they may face.

The question should never simply be:

“Is this country safe?”

We must also be willing to ask:

“Is this country safe for this person?”

That difference can mean everything.

Why StopQueerDeportations Exists

StopQueerDeportations seeks to draw attention to the potential consequences of return and deportation for LGBTQIA+ people.

We want to make information accessible, bring people’s stories into view and contribute to the public and political conversation about what safety truly means.

Not every return is the same.

Not every person faces the same risk.

And no map, ranking or general assessment can fully describe an individual’s situation.

That is why we must continue to look at the person behind the procedure.

At their story.

At their circumstances.

And, above all, at whether returning is genuinely safe.

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