Fieldwork with ALMEES Safe Refuge
The following report was written by Erkan Gürsel.
With the support of the THA Volunteering Award, I spent June and July 2025 in Turkey working with ALMEES Safe Refuge, a newly forming, refugee- and trans-led grassroots organisation. ALMEES brings together feminist activists with first-hand experiences of displacement, detention, and crisis response to support queer and trans refugees in Turkey. The organisation commissioned me to contribute to their first report and examine the impacts of deportation centres and the limited support provided by domestic civil society on queer and trans displaced communities in Turkey.
The intended outcome is for ALMEES to create a set of recommendations for both local and international organisations, ensuring that advocacy and aid efforts are shaped by and for queer and trans displaced persons themselves.
Three-phased role:
- Fieldwork (June 2025): I travelled to Istanbul and Ankara to conduct interviews and focus groups with individuals part of the ALMEES network, documenting their experiences of systemic violence and exclusion. I also met with representatives from local civil-society organisations, and a number of independent academics with previous work on the subject, to better understand the current support mechanisms in place.
- Data Analysis (July 2025): After returning to the UK, I analysed interview transcripts, field notes, and discussions to identify recurring themes. This included reviewing gaps in existing support systems, and highlighting best practices that can be expanded.
- Report Drafting (July – August 2025): I began preparing the draft report by summarising key findings, addressing the research questions, and developing actionable recommendations. The report will ultimately be published in Turkish, Arabic, and English, with a digital launch to share the findings with local and international stakeholders. The exact timeline for this is yet to be confirmed by ALMEES.
Outcomes
- Documenting lived experiences through interviews provided first-hand insight into the nuanced vulnerabilities of queer and trans refugees in Turkey, including disproportionate exposure to violence and discrimination.
- Stronger ties between ALMEES and established local organisations, helping to position ALMEES as a potential partner in future advocacy
The final report by ALMEES will provide recommendations tailored to both domestic and international stakeholders, ranging from CSOs to intergovernmental agencies. By doing so, the project seeks to directly improve support systems for queer and trans displaced people in Turkey and set a precedent for inclusive, feminist-informed humanitarian practice. Professionally, this project has deepened my experience as a researcher working at the intersection of academic and activist knowledge production. It has also provided embodied insights that will feed directly into my MPhil research at Cambridge and my longer-term career trajectory in human rights. Personally, it has been a rewarding experience to contribute to a project where my academic training and activist commitments align, allowing me to support grassroots feminist organising in a difficult and often hostile context.
I am sincerely thankful to the Trinity Hall Association for the Volunteering Award, which made my participation in this project possible by covering my travel and accommodation in Istanbul. Your support has enabled me to work with ALMEES Safe Refuge at a formative stage in their development and to contribute to work that I believe will have a lasting impact on the lives of queer and trans refugees in Turkey.