By The Moscow Times | Created at 2025-04-01 14:00:21 | Updated at 2025-04-02 18:07:53
1 day ago
A 17-year-old transgender Russian woman died Saturday at a refugee camp in the Netherlands, according to the LGBT Asylum Support organization, which assists LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.
Alisa Serova died after an alleged drug overdose, the organization said, adding that she had been left alone and lacked access to hormone therapy or psychological care at the shelter. She was also unable to contact her caseworker at the center for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, the group said.
On the day of her death, other refugees at the camp alerted staff at the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) that Serova was “barely breathing.” An ambulance was called only after a second check, by which time she was “probably already dead,” according to LGBT Asylum Support.
The media outlet VotTak reported that Serova never regained consciousness and died in intensive care.
A fellow resident at the camp told VotTak that Serova was housed in a section where minors were not supposed to stay and that she had confided thoughts of suicide the day before her overdose. Another resident, also speaking anonymously, said Serova struggled with the language barrier.
Unconfirmed reports claimed Serova had been raped at the camp when she was 16, during her first month there.
At least six LGBTQ+ Russians have died in Dutch refugee camps since the start of the war in Ukraine, VotTak reported. One of the most recent cases was the death of Antonina Babkina, a transgender Russian woman who had sought asylum in the Netherlands.
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