The president of French LGBTQ rights organization SOS Homophobie announced today that France has started taking in gay refugees from Chechnya.

“The first gay Chechen refugee arrived on French land,” Joël Deumier said on the radio station FranceInfo. “So France has started to welcome Chechen refugees. This is going to continue.”

He went on to say that SOS Homophobie helped with the refugee’s application and provided testimony that he was oppressed because of his sexuality. Read more via LGBTQ Nation