Category Archives: Still In Danger

Passengers who are still in danger

Passenger Campaigns, Still In Danger

Rudy’s On Her Way, Nancy Isn’t. We Need Your Help!

Long-time followers of our social media presence will know that we’ve been supporting a pair of Egyptian trans women over the last year. Rudy and Nancy are pseudonyms for a pair who have been on the run from both their families, and the police crackdown on LGBT people.  Last October we published some of their audio testimony.

Good News, And Bad News

We have some good news about them, but also some bad news. Last week we had arranged for them to fly out of Egypt to a third country, and while Rudy has made it, Nancy was turned back at the airport. This is one of the risks in our work, that somewhere a random member of staff at an airport won’t like the look of them, and won’t let them on the plane.

Right now we have Rudy safely in the third country, and Nancy still in Egypt. We have flight tickets for both of them in about ten days to reach their final destination, but if we can’t get Nancy to the third country she won’t be on that flight.

Now Nancy Needs Your Help

So this is where you come in. We’re mounting an appeal to get Nancy out of Egypt to the third country, for which we estimate we’ll need about 1200 Euros. If we don’t manage it we lose our existing investment in her flight to safety, she’s stuck in Egypt, and we’ll have to raise even more money for a fresh extraction in future.

So please help us if you can. It’s a fairly short time to raise quite a lot of money, but I know our supporters as a generous bunch who are concerned with getting endangered trans people to safety. Please help us ensure that two people rather than one reach safety in early March.

Header image: Jonathan Payne from Ayr, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Project Campaigns, Still In Danger, Uncategorized

Trans Woman Assaulted in Kenya

May 25, Mombasa

Rita, a trans woman in coastal Kenya, was assaulted on May 15 at her restaurant chef job, after the restaurant owner learned she was trans. He and another employee attacked her, probably giving her a concussion and skull fracture.

The police came and arrested Rita, charged her with “impersonation” and “shaming” the restaurant. She was denied medical care, despite the severity of her injuries, and was placed in a cell with men. During the night she fended off a sexual assault.

Trans Rescue provided funds and some local trans women (some of the group starting Eden House) bailed her out. Trans Rescue also provided funds for medical and psychological care.

Anne Ogborn, a Trans Rescue staff member, said, “We’re particularly anxious to get Rita away from this area, since we fear she’ll be blackmailed now.”

As one of the women helping Rita said, “is it wrong to ask for a Job surely why are some people so heartless?”

We’re withholding the name of the restaurant and it’s owner to prevent retaliation against Rita. Rita is an alias.

Follow up. Rita collapsed during a follow up medical appointment and is currently in hospital. Trans Rescue is trying to raise 2000 EU to pay for medical care and to get Rita and the group of trans women she lives with out of the area on an emergency basis.

DonATE TO HELP Rita
Campaigns, Passenger Campaigns, Still In Danger

Walim – Egypt

Engineers are born, not made, it seems.

Some people are in love with machines and will tinker endlessly if allowed.

Sadly, in some places people seen as women still aren’t allowed. Often our work at Trans Rescue isn’t about fighting transphobia as much as it is about fighting sexism.

Walim is a 19 year old Egyptian trans man. He loves machinery and electronics and reads about it endlessly. One of our volunteers spends a lot of time teaching him electronics over the internet.

His father is driven crazy by his love of gadgets and beats him regularly for it and for doing ‘boy’ things.

When he cut his hair short, his father beat him savagely.

We desperately need to get him out before he’s killed. We’ve made one attempt recently, but need funds to make a second attempt.

January 4, 2023

We’re happy to announce that Walim is no longer in Egypt. He was extracted in a difficult operation on January 4, 2023. He is in a safe location, and will be moved to a final destination as that becomes possible.

Some details of events and circumstances have been changed for the safety of Walim and our agents. Walim is an alias.

Campaigns, Passenger Campaigns, Still In Danger

Ife – life in Nigeria

Ife is a beautiful young (21) trans woman from Nigeria.

She’s surviving on street hustles.

Five minutes talking with her and you realize how intelligent she is. She’s well read and can talk about gender theory like a western baby trans. As we discuss plans to get her out, she emphasizes, over and over, how important it is to her to get to somewhere she can continue her education.

When she first contacted us she was living in poor conditions. Soldiers came to her flat and threatened her, and neighbors were harassing her, so she had trouble entering or leaving the flat.

We moved her to a safe house, but have been having trouble getting her out of Nigeria. She once called it ‘her never ending vacation’.

A family member caught up with her at the safe house, and we’ve had to move her to another city.

She can’t really pass as a boy, so it’s particularly difficult to get her out.

She’s interested in languages and wants to live a normal life. We’d like to get her to a European country where she has family.

We have a scheme to get her out, but it’s going very slowly. It’s very hard to get a visa to a safe place from Nigeria.

Please help us get Ife out.

Some details of events and circumstances have been changed for the safety of Ife and our agents. ‘Ife’ is an alias. The image above is a stock photo of an actor.

Campaigns, Passenger Campaigns, Still In Danger

Sara – Intersexed in Iran

Sara is an intersexed woman with an undiagnosed sex hormone issue. She lives in a small town in northern Iran.

She’s unable to have the issue properly diagnosed or to obtain supportive medical care. The local authorities, and Sara herself, have no word for intersex, and so say she’s LGBT.

The police have sent letters to her family telling them to send her to the local health center. She’s not gone, but eventually they will pick her up. She’s been told in Iran she must either be a boy or a girl, or she will be arrested. She has no place to stand.

She used to go out sometimes, but after much street harassment and several encounters with the police, including being jailed for several days, she doesn’t go outside any more. If this goes on long enough she’ll be thrown in prison.

Her father is physically and emotionally abusive and has threatened to kill her.

Sara contacted TransEmigrate for help 9 months ago. We’ve been trying to get her out.

With our encouragement, she’s took the giant risk of enlisting her mother. They’re working together with us to get her to a safe country where she can find acceptance, a full life, and proper medical care.

Campaigns, Passenger Campaigns, Still In Danger

Maeen Aldahbali

I’m Maeen Aldahbali from Yemen. Im currently in Egypt.

I’ve been shot, humiliated, tortured and jailed.

As a young Yemeni born in 1998 I dream of a peaceful life and brighter future for me and all youth of my community. Unfortunately, the spring of my age met my home country’s autumn years. So I witnessed the war in Taiz city when it had just started in the beginning of 2015, I saw people suffering especially the youth and children. That was when I decided to do something for them and not to be useless as I always stand for peace and humanity.

After a year of working for children rights and trying to keep them away from the war, I got selected to be the governor for Taiz City for the Youth and Children Government. I worked hard to do better for the youth of my city as much as possible at least to prevent them from being involved in the war, and protect their rights during the conflict. Because I truly believe they are the men of tomorrow, they should be empowered by knowledge not by extremism. We helped educate them and keep them safe far away from any kind of violence.

However, in the end of 2016 I was shot three times on my arm after a terrorist attack from my back while driving back home in the evening. After two weeks, though I wasn’t safe, I immediately went back to work because I’m driven by a purpose and passion.

The second attack happened in 2019 while driving to work with my friend in the morning. Not only have I been shot again but also my friend had been shot and killed.

When I got out of the hospital I was asked to go to be questioned which I thought is normal. However, I was taken to a basement jail for more than 10 months, where I was extremely tortured and forced to stop working for Youth and Children rights in exchange for my freedom after my case went public.

I managed to escape from Yemen to Egypt with TransEmigrate’s help. I’m currently in Egypt which is even not safe for me, I’m receiving death threats. I’m trying to move to a country far away where I can live at peace.

Trans Rescue says:

Trans people know what it is to be in danger. Maeen is a cis man who contacted us in desperation when no one else would help him. We said screw it, we’re better than cis people. We helped.

Maeen remains in Egypt, still in danger. We’re trying to get him out. Meanwhile, we’re trying to keep him out of the hands of his enemies, who know roughly where he is, and who have been seen in Egypt.

Most descriptions of our clients have details changed. This one does not.