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The refugees have faced dire conditions.
12:20, Wed, Jan 21, 2026 Updated: 12:28, Wed, Jan 21, 2026
Transgender people are increasingly fleeing the US (Image: Getty)
Donald Trump's America has reached the point where people are fleeing the country and become refugees in Europe. According to Dutch immigration authorities, 76 US citizens claimed asylum in the Netherlands last year, a significant increase from the nine that did in 2024. Many of those fleeing are transgender or parents to transgender children, The Guardian reported. Many transgender people are allegedly being victims of hostility and discrimination in their home states. But the Dutch ministry of asylum and migration has so far deemed that the alleged mistreatment of the LGBTQ community in the US is not grounds for refugee status, according to The World.
The refugees are often housed in the "queer block" of an overcrowded camp in the northern village of Ter Apel. The prison-like camp has guards at every gate and residents have complained that the tiny rooms are covered in graffiti, with some claiming that bodily fluids have been smeared on the walls. Asylum seekers are allowed to leave the camp, but must complete daily bed checks in person. They are also given a small allowance to buy food and cook meals in the communal kitchen.
Activists in New York rallying for trans youth in opposition to the Trump administration (Image: Getty)
San Diego resident Jane Michelle Arc, 47, moved to the Netherlands in April after being hospitalised following an assault. She said she was "getting punched or pushed or shoved every single week" while walking the city streets.
Elliot Hefty, 37, a transgender man seeking asylum in the Netherlands, said he decided to leave the US after being attacked on a street in Kentucky. He told the World that a man pushed him to the ground during a lunchtime walk, adding: "I was left alone bleeding in the middle of the street."
Hefty also claimed he was denied service in shops, with owners telling him that his "tranny money" was no good there.
Actor and visual artist Veronica Clifford Carlos, 28, flew to Amsterdam in June last year to seek asylum after receiving daily death threats in San Francisco.
Gayle Carter-Stewart, who moved her transgender teen Nox to the country from Montana last April, said their asylum application was "automatically rejected because America is considered a safe country of origin".
But no Americans who arrived in the Netherlands during President Trump's second term have reportedly been granted asylum. This is because for an asylum claim to be successful, the US government would need to be detaining people over their gender identities.
Carter-Stewart said Nox, 14, told authorities that they would kill themselves if they returned to the US, but noted that "none of that was considered in their decision-making process".
They also warn that Dutch officials do not want to provoke Trump by declaring America an unsafe country, further worsening the chances of asylum claims being granted.
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This comes as the United States is experiencing a rapid, nation-wide effort by the federal executive branch to restrict or block access to gender-affirming medical treatments. In December, the US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced an effort to block transition-related medical treatments for minors.
About 3% of teenagers aged 13-17 identify as transgender, approximately 700,000 people, NPR reported. Less than a third of transgender people took medication related to their identity, and 16% had had surgery.
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