Ktifan and two other men -- Yousif Al Doori, 25, of Iraq, and Ahmed Suliman, 20, of Syria said that initially they suffered only verbal abuse after word spread about their sexuality in a refugee shelter in Munich. But after they were relocated with other refugees to a longer-term facility in Dresden, things took a turn for the worse.At one point, Ktifan said, another refugee slipped into his room at night, stuck pieces of paper between his toes and set them on fire. Al Doori said several male refugees from North Africa and the Middle East surrounded him and then demanded sex. He said he pretended to go with one of them willingly before running away. Ktifan, Al Doori and Suliman said they were routinely pushed and shoved by fellow refugees while in line for food. Several of the male refugees would shout at them to go wait with the women, Ktifan said.The harassment became so constant that, with the aid of local gay activists, Ktifan, Al Doori and Suliman where ultimately pulled out of their refugee center last month and installed in a small separate apartment near the city center. Thedangers they faced, though, were nothing new.
Before fleeing for Europe, Al Doori said he was kidnapped and held for two days in Baghdad by religious thugs who had tried to extort his family because he is gay. In Syria, Ktifan said he hid his sexuality from all but a select few and initially fled to Libya to escape his countrys civil war. After a Libyan man tried to blackmail him for being gay, Ktifan said he returned to Syria. But as he grew increasingly fearful of Islamist extremists who were targeting gays and lesbians, he said he decided to join the exodus to Europe.
We thought we were leaving that kind of treatment behind, said Suliman. But inside the refugee center, it felt like we were back in Syria.
