US transgender woman returns home after failed Dutch asylum bid

A transgender woman from the US who sought asylum in the Netherlands has returned home after her application bid failed and she suffered serious intimidation at the Ter Apel refugee centre.

Jane-Michelle Arc, from California, was one of approximately 76 Americans that sought asylum in the Netherlands last year. She flew to Schiphol airport and was instructed by customs officers to report to the immigration service IND at Ter Apel, which houses roughly 2,000 asylum seekers.

Her reason for leaving the US was the change in policy enacted by the Trump administration, which in an executive order denounced “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex”, and ended the federal recognition of any gender identity besides male and female, rolling back anti-discrimination policies and protections on employment, housing and healthcare protections for trans people.

But the conditions at Ter Apel, which Arc described as “dire”, were life-threatening, she said, citing anti-trans hostility from other people at the camp.

Dangerous conditions 
“This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done”, Arc told the Guardian. “The situation I have in the US as a trans person, not good, right?. But here, I will be hurt or killed,” she separately told outlet Powned last month.

She said it was too dangerous to even walk to the supermarket, and spoke of the rising violence around the centre that has occurred this summer amid an overflow of refugees who were sleeping outside the facility gates in the heat.

After numerous fights, including two stabbings, aid organisations temporarily stopped working there for their own safety. Asylum minister Bart van den Brink subsequently enacted new measures including more security guards, CCTV cameras, and rooms for people without beds at the centre to stay indoors during the day.

US asylum claims 
Arc estimated there are roughly 35-50 other trans people at the centre, housed in a special block away from other residents. It is unclear how many are seeking asylum on the grounds of gender discrimination, but Dutch group LGBT Asylum Support said in mid-2025 it was assisting around 20 US trans individuals with pending asylum claims.

“The IND generally states that discrimination by authorities and fellow citizens can be considered an act of persecution if it is so severe that victims can no longer function socially and societally,” the group said in a statement reported by Reuters.
“But the IND maintains that there are no grounds for exceptional treatment of transgender and queer refugees from the US.”

Another US asylum seeker, Lisa Gayle Carter-Stewart, who fled Montana with her 14-year old transgender daughter said their application was automatically rejected because America is considered a safe country, according to the Guardian.

The IND dismissed her daughter’s statement that they would commit suicide if forced to return to the US, Carter-Stewart said. Her daughter did not feel safe to ever leave her room at Ter Apel and attempted suicide three times while staying there, before they were moved to a more family-friendly camp near Leiden. Despite their experiences in the Dutch camps, they still feel unsafe returning to the US.