Surviving Overlapping Precarity in a 'Gigantic Hellhole' a ‘measly cold’ 10 and said masks are ‘for fairies’, a common homophobic slur.11 Downplaying the severity of the pandemic, the openly homophobic president has also called on Brazilians to stop being a ‘country of sissies’, using the Portuguese homophobic slur ‘maricas’. 12 Under previous leadership, Brazil gained global praise for their handling of health crises including AIDS and the Zika virus, but the Bolsonaro Government’s lack of response has harmed the country's ability to cope. 13 From March to April 2021, our research team surveyed 19 Venezuelan LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Manaus and Brasilia. These are Venezuelan citizens who have crossed the border to Brazil in the last two years. Sixteen of the respondents are asylum seekers and three are undocumented migrants who do not have any status in the country, as the asylum process has been halted during the COVID-19 pandemic and the border is technically closed. Our preliminary research indicates that, during the pandemic, they are: 1) unable to meet their basic needs due to a lack of livelihood, 2) struggling with increased mental health issues and 3) uncertain about their legal status. Our respondents described the Brazilian Government’s COVID-19 response as inadequate with several respondents being reluctant to criticise the Government. In addition, our conversations with three trans women who crossed the border during the second wave of the pandemic gave us insight into the challenges undocumented migrants face in crossing borders during a pandemic. Ultimately, we argue that the lives of Venezuelan LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Brazil have been made particularly vulnerable due to ‘politically produced precarity’ in a situation of ‘overlapping precarity’ during the pandemic. 14 LACK OF LIVELIHOOD, MOUNTING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND UNCERTAIN STATUS In March 2020, quarantine measures banned the informal income sources of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers, such as sex work or selling items on the streets. 15 Of the 19 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants interviewed, 15 reported that COVID-19 has made their livelihood unsafe, caused them to risk their lives to make a living or has eliminated their income. As a young bisexual male asylum seeker shared: ‘Because of the restrictions, I can’t get out of my house to work’. 10 11 12 13 14 15 Ernesto Londoño, Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado, ‘Bolsonaro, Isolated and Defiant, Dismisses Coronavirus Threat to Brazil’, The New York Times (online, 18 June 2020) <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-coronavirus.html>. Tom Phillips, ‘Brazil: Bolsonaro Reportedly Uses Homophobic Slur to Mock Masks’, The Guardian (online, 8 Jul 2020) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/08/bolsonaromasks-slur-brazil-coronavirus>. Tom Phillips, ‘Brazil’s Fearful LGBT Community Prepares for a “Proud Homophobe”’, The Guardian (online, 27 Oct 2018) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/27/dispatchsao-paulo-jair-bolsonaro-victory-lgbt-community-fear>; Antonia Noori Farzan and Miriam Berger, ‘Bolsonaro Says Brazilians Must Not Be Sissies About Coronavirus, as “All of us are Going to Die One Day”', The Washington Post (online, 12 Nov 2020) <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/11/11/bolsonaro-coronavirus-brazilquotes/>. Londoño and Casado (n 8). Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, ‘Responding to Precarity: Beddawi Camp in the Era of COVID19’ (2020) 49(4) Journal of Palestine Studies 27, 28. ibid 8. Whilst the measures themselves did not specifically target LGBT asylum seekers, the measures that were enacted banned specific types of labour which impacted the labour typically performed by LGBT asylum seekers. 157