Fear, abuse and eroding rights have forced many transgender people to leave the United States and seek asylum in the Netherlands, according to reports from the Ter Apel refugee camp. The number of Americans claiming asylum in the Netherlands rose to 76 last year, up from nine in 2024, with many identifying as transgender.
Jane-Michelle Arc, a 47-year-old software engineer from San Francisco, said she fled because the US had become a hostile environment for trans people. She described being abused on the street and in public toilets, and said she stopped leaving home unless an Uber was waiting. After arriving at Schiphol airport in April last year, she was directed to the Ter Apel camp, the Netherlands' largest reception centre for asylum seekers.
The camp houses 2,000 people from around the world, including Eritreans, Somalis and Syrians. Some residents expressed surprise at the presence of Americans. 'My dream is to go to America or the UK. America for me is the paradise,' said Usama, a 21-year-old Libyan-Algerian. 'Why they come here?'
Arc was placed in a block for LGBT asylum seekers, where she found common ground with others from countries such as Iran, Libya and Morocco. 'All of us thought of America as a place we wanted to live in – a beautiful country of opportunities,' she said. 'But it was surprising and sad and validating that our stories were so similar.'
Ashe Wilde, another American trans man who arrived in October, said anti-trans hate in the US has grown since he transitioned in 2019. The Netherlands does not provide hotels for asylum seekers, instead housing them in fenced-off camps with guards and daily bed checks.
