Officials at the department of home affairs will soon undergo sensitisation training in a bid to end the discrimination faced by queer asylum seekers.

The decision to train refugee reception officers and adjudicating officers was taken at a meeting between queer rights activists and department representatives on Tuesday. The meeting was a follow-up to last Friday’s meeting between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights activists and Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba.

In a statement after the meeting, Gigaba said: “Our aim should not just be to comply with the law but to promote an ethos of diversity and inclusion consistent with the Constitution and our national values.”

Issues discussed at both meetings included the Civil Union Amendment Bill, the difficulties experienced by transgender people in changing their gender markers on identity documents and the discrimination faced by refugees when dealing with department officials.

Steve Letsike, executive director of queer rights organisation Access Chapter 2, said: “We have many cases where LGBTI persons come to the country fearing for their lives, only to come to South Africa and get discriminated against by home affairs officials.”

She added that “there were instances where it was clear that applications were rejected only because of an official’s prejudice”. As a result, “some asylum seekers are undocumented”. Read more via Mail & Guardian