Monday 25 November 2024, Benefit Voku for a Trans Queer Refugee's Legal Expenses

This Voku is brought to you by SKRAPS (Soup Kitchen for Radical Actions and Political Solidarity). On this Monday, we will cook a vegan three-course meal from rescued ingredients and raise money for the legal expenses of a trans queer refugee in the Netherlands.

Röya is a 21 year-old immigrant trans woman from Azerbaijan, currently facing a terrible situation of systemic injustice and she’s in urgent need of help! She’s been living in the Netherlands from 3 years, where she’s been finally free to express her gender identity, but her Visa to stay in the EU is about to expire and she needs to face very high legal expenses in order to not get deported, risking her life back home. Her situation back home is extremely terrifying and unsafe: that’s why she needs to try her best to stay safe here in EU, navigating tons of bureaucracy and paperwork with the help of skilled lawyers. Our goal is to raise money to be able to pay immigration lawyers and for applying to the paperwork needed to not get her deported.

Azerbaijan is an extremely unsafe place for queer and trans individuals: ILGA-Europe has ranked the country as the worst state (49 out of 49) in Europe for LGBTQ+ folks, not only for its total absence of legal protection, but also for the active violence enforced by the state on trans people, which targets and persecutes and blackmails queer folks. Beside the terrible state repression, queer and trans people face every single day high rates of physical violence, harassment and discrimination.

The system we live in makes refugees' and trans people's lives impossible: no one should go through this just because they’re born in a certain country, or they’re queer.

Food served from 7pm, no reservation.