The Kenyan government is under fire over its asylum policy after four refugees were returned to Turkey from Kenya and the nation’s queer community condemned the government’s policy of discriminating against LGBTQ asylum seekers.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has expressed “deep concern” over reports that four refugees were returned to Turkey from Kenya.

The four were repatriated at the request of the Turkish government, Kenya’s foreign ministry said.

The statement came after reports of several people being abducted in the capital, Nairobi, on Friday.

British national Necdet Seyitoglu told UK media that he and several Turkish citizens had been kidnapped by masked men.

He said he had been released after eight hours when he showed his alleged abductors a copy of his British passport.

“UNHCR urges the Government of Kenya to abide by their international legal obligations, and in particular, to respect the principle of non-refoulment, which protects asylum-seekers and refugees from any measure that could lead to their removal to a place where their life or freedom would be threatened,” the agency said in a statement.

Kenya’s foreign ministry said it had agreed to Turkey’s request to repatriate the four men because of the country’s “robust historical and strategic relations” with Turkey, and that it had been assured the refugees would be “treated with dignity”.

The four are believed to be followers of the Gulen movement, a powerful Islamic community with followers in Turkey and worldwide, whose leader Fethullah Gulen died recently.

The movement runs a network of schools in Kenya and around the world.

Known as Hizmet or “service” in Turkey, it was blamed for a 2016 coup attempt and later declared a terrorist organisation.

Following the reported abduction, Kenyan law firm Mukele & Kakai said it was acting on behalf of four men who were registered refugees and warned airlines against allowing them to be taken on board.

A letter from the firm describes them as “victims of political victimisation”.

The Kenyan government said it had “unswerving commitment to the protection and promotion of refugee rights” and was “committed to the privacy and confidentiality of the repatriated individuals”.

Amnesty International’s Police Reforms Working Group has said it is shocked by the “Government of Kenya’s admission that Kenyan law enforcement and foreign affairs agencies played a role in the refoulement and forced return of the men”.

“The principle of non-refoulement is a cornerstone of refugee protection. It has been recognised in international humanitarian law for more than seventy years. The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the 1969 OAU Convention on refugees and the 2021 Refugee Law of Kenya explicitly prohibit the return of refugees to a place where they are likely to face the very danger from which they fled. These obligations cannot be traded for commercial, diplomatic or trade interests without violating both national and international law,” Amnesty said.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s queer launched a petition that challenges discrimination against LGBTQ asylum seekers in the African nation.

The community, through an ‘All Out’ petition drive, accuses Kenya’s Department of Refugee Services of putting queer asylum seekers at more risk of “persecution, violence, and exploitation” by not recognising them as afflicted refugees.

The move is a response to Kenya’s Refugee Affairs Commissioner John Burugu’s recent comments in which he said Kenya would not consider persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity as a direct pass to asylum.

“We are not interested in anyone’s sexual identity,” he said, adding that his department would not be convinced that persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity is sufficient grounds for admission as an asylum seeker or refugee.

The Kenya 2021 Refugees Act does not explicitly recognise queer people among vulnerable individuals fleeing persecution. The law only recognizes refugees or asylum seekers as people who are persecuted based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a social group. 

Opposition MP George Kaluma’s proposed anti-homosexuality law also seeks the expulsion LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers from Kenya.

“Decision-makers like the Department of Refugee Services and UNHCR Kenya are failing to uphold international human rights standards while the media and major NGOs remain silent,” the petition says.

It says the exclusion of LGBTQ refugees has left the majority of them vulnerable to more trauma and isolation.

Currently LGBTQ asylum seekers can wait up to a decade for the department to issue a decision on their asylum applications, while it typically takes 12 months to process asylum applications in Kenya.