ABSTRACT
The high rates of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict zones are a major cause of forced migration and leave deep fears among women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans- and intersex (LGBTI) refugees. The gendered impacts of conflict and exile on the situation, experiences and strategies of women and men refugees merges with the deep legal and structural violence constructed under the conditions of temporary protection regimes, implemented primarily in transit or regional countries. Besides the physical and emotional traumas of war and displacement, the insecurities of Syrian LGBTI refugees are often compounded by the need to hide their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Lack of access to human rights guaranteed under the international conventions on refugee protection thus intertwines with social and economic exploitation and with sexual and gender based violence. Spaces of physical exclusion and criminalization or illegalization of refugees and migrants, these borders rise as smart, high-technology performative spaces of gendered violence.
