Canada’s clandestine evacuation helps gay Chechen refugees escape torture

CANADA has quietly accepted 22 gay men and women from Chechnya since the end of June, amid a crackdown on the LGBT community in the conservative Muslim region.

Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation that helps gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people escape from state-sponsored violence, revealed the clandestine initiative, which involved the Canadian government, on Facebook on Friday.

Kimahli Powell, the organisation’s executive director, told The Daily Telegraph that his group reached out to Randy Boissonnault – who serves as special adviser on LGBT issues to Justin Trudeau, the prime minister – following reports that gay men were under attack in Chechnya.

Mr Boissonnault helped coordinate the secret evacuation programme with the Canadian Global Affairs and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship departments. Nine more LGBT people from Chechnya, which is a republic of Russia, are expected to arrive in Canada this week. The refugees, mostly men who were first sheltered in safe houses elsewhere in Russia, would settle in Toronto, said Mr Powell.

“It sends a very powerful statement about our leadership in the global community when it comes to LGBT rights,” said Mr Powell. France and Germany have each accepted a gay Chechen refugee, and Lithuania has taken in two.

But so far Canada has opened its doors to the most gay refugees who have fled Chechnya, where mainly gay men have reportedly been detained, tortured and murdered because of their sexual orientation.