The Head of the Office for Foreigners has granted refugee status to a Turkmen asylum seeker, who has applied for international protection since August 2023.
The man had fled his native Turkmenistan, where he had previously been detained and tortured by law enforcement officials because of his sexual orientation as a homosexual man, as well as his HIV infection.
International human rights organisations, including the Human Dignity Trust, have written about the man’s case – while he was not yet in Poland – highlighting the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people in his country of origin.
Although sexual orientation may constitute one of the reasons for applying for international protection, the Office for Foreigners refuses to provide social organisations with statistics on asylum applications made on such grounds.
In the international protection case, the migrant was represented by Aleksandra Pulchny. The client was supported by Elena Efimova as an integration counsellor.