The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration this week launched a petition calling upon the Obama administration to reserve 500 spaces for LGBTI refugees.
The move follows a recent statement from the group asking the administration to reserve slots for LGBT Syrian refugees.
The administration previously announced that it would hold 10,000 spaces for Syrian refugees out of the total number of 75,000 for all refugees coming to the U.S.
“LGBTI refugees, among the world’s extremely vulnerable populations, face the direst circumstances in a situation of nightmarish proportions,” Neil Grungras, executive director of ORAM, said in the news release. “Those who succeed in escaping the infernos of Syria and Iraq find impossible survival challenges in surrounding countries.”
Grungras surmised that a “minor 5 percent of the 10,000 additional slots would make an enormous impact on the lives of LGBTI Syrian refugees desperately attempting to, against all odds, be resettled to safety.”
This year, 100 known LGBT refugees resettled in the U.S., according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who co-headed the first-ever LGBT meeting at the U.N. Security Council with U.N. Ambassador Cristian Barros Melet of Chile in August.
“Saving these lives and restoring their dignity is the right thing to do and the time to act is now,” said Grungras, who reopened ORAM’s San Francisco office a couple months ago.
To sign the petition, visit www.causes.com/campaigns/96224-help-save-500-lgbti-refugees-lives.
