Call for solidarity with Bella Demhat!
The political activist and Kurdish trans woman Bella Demhat was arrested by the police in Sweden on the evening of 29 May and placed in detention pending deportation. Although she has been living in Sweden since 2017 in an attempt to seek protection from persecution, discrimination and threats, her asylum application was definitively rejected by the Swedish authorities, despite her accounts of death threats and the risks she faces as a trans woman and a Kurd. She left Turkey after being arrested and beaten by the police for taking part in Istanbul Pride. Since then, she has received death threats – including from her own family.
After she appealed against the rejection of her asylum application, the UN Human Rights Committee also upheld the decision to deport her.
She is therefore currently at acute risk of deportation to Turkey.
Deportation to Turkey would expose Bella to grave danger to her safety and well-being. The rights of trans people and other LGBTI+ individuals continue to be severely restricted and under attack there, whilst discrimination, violence and social exclusion are an everyday reality. According to various human rights organisations, Turkey is one of the most dangerous countries for trans people.
Not only is she being persecuted and threatened as an LGBTI+ person, but she is also facing attacks and repression because of her broader political activism and the fact that she is Kurdish. Deportation could be a death sentence for her.
We call on everyone to publicise Bella Demhat’s case, to put pressure on the authorities responsible, and to campaign against her deportation!
