Panama City – People with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) in the Caribbean can face persecution, discrimination and marginalization, encouraging, or even forcing, them to leave their home countries in search of safer places to live. When they move, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual and other sexually or gender diverse (LGBTIQ+) migrants may continue to face discrimination, difficulties accessing services and even appropriate documents that accurately reflect their gender. To counter this, IOM held the training “Addressing Challenges Faced by Diverse Migrant Populations in the Caribbean” with representatives from the governments of Belize, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Suriname and four civil society organizations from Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.

The training, which took place in Panama City on 3-4 July 2023, is part of a larger SOGIESC and Migration an training package developed with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also presented its initial results from surveys in Barbados and Jamaica from their multi-year programme, “Being LGBTI in the Caribbean”, which included critical questions on why LGBTIQ persons move within the region.

According to Brendan Tarnay, IOM Program Support Officer for the Caribbean,

“Civil society organisations and governments are engaged in discussions around LGBTIQ+ issues in the Caribbean as they work to ensure that everyone is able to fully contribute to society. This training offers opportunities to create networks in the region and to use the skills learned to welcome and create safe environments for all, including LGBTIQ+ migrants”.

Shadeana Mascull, Welfare and Support Services Manager, Equality for All Foundation, Jamaica also added that

“This training was useful in reinforcing my knowledge and I learned new terminology that is used around the world. In Jamaica, our motto is ‘Out of many, one people’ and our culture has a wide variety of people, but we may be excluding some people based on the language we use. So, we can be more mindful when speaking and advocating, and we

need to be mindful of those coming from other cultures. We also learned the global overview to understand the situation outside of our region”.

Ms. Dorn Henry, Deputy Director and Clinical Supervisor at the New Horizons Rehabilitation Centre of the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis was one of the participants.

“This training has inspired me to include gender inclusive communication, gender terminologies, and international law in the Orientation and Refresher Trainings I conduct for the Ministry of Social Development and Gender Affairs”. This training is a follow-up action to the 2022 report “Recommendations for Facilitating the Cross-Border Migration for Persons with Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities, Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics in the Caribbean” and has the objective to contribute to minimizing the negative drivers of migration, addressing the vulnerabilities that often arise during migration, and empowering migrants and socities to be fully included, helping to meet objectives 2, 4, 7, 12, 16 and 17 of the Global Compact of Migration. The activity was undertaken as part of IOM’s Western Hemisphere Program, generously funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.