Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees Inc. (IRQR)
Published: 6 Oct 2016
Country: Canada
Website: www.irqr.net
Telephone: (001) 41 65 48 41 71
Fax: (001) 41 62 14 20 43
Street Address: 20 Bay Street, 12th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8
IRQR is an international queer human rights organisation based in Toronto, Canada. IRQR help Iranian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered refugees all over the world when threatened with deportation back to Iran, and also assist Iranian queers in obtaining asylum in friendly countries. Their goals are to end discrimination against sexual minorities in Iran; to raise awareness of queer oppression in Iran and in other countries; to advocate for the Iranian queer population; fight for the abolition of execution in Iran; and to end systematic abuses of human rights in Iran. Many Iranian queer people fleeing persecution in Iran go to Turkey. UNHCR interviews these refugees and if they are granted asylum status, UNHCR looks for a new country for each person on the basis of their profile. However, IRQR assists some of these refugees through the process and, whenever possible, provides funds for safe houses from donations, since Turkey is also a homophobic and transphobic society and queer people are not physically safe there either.