Kevin was just 22 years old when he left home in 2009 with his brother. Rebel groups living near his village often came to collect food and forcibly recruit youth. Years of violence and instability had made his home in Sud Kivu a fearful and uncertain place to live. So when the rebels and the […]
Name: Ben Lewis Office: Tanzania Age: 32 Hometown: Kansas City, Kansas, USA What made you volunteer as a VLA? After working with Asylum Access San Francisco as a Policy Advocacy Intern as a law student, I was excited to have the opportunity to continue working with the organization as a Volunteer Legal Advocate (VLA) in […]
“I went to a local church to ask for help. They assisted me with a place to stay and gave me some money for food. However, it did not take long for this money to run out. We were back where we started, in hunger and misery. I did not have a choice but to […]
Published May 2012 Name: Rita Crowley-Ornelas Office: Ecuador Age: 25 Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico What made you volunteer as a VLA? I was intrigued by the opportunity to work abroad, better my Spanish and learn more about asylum law. What was your greatest accomplishment as a VLA? I am very proud of the work I […]
An Interview with Asylum Access Thailand Legal Services Manager Michael Timmins Following months of heavy rain, a third of Thailand has been inundated in what has been called the worst flood and natural disaster in Thailand in the last half a century. The waters reached the capital city of Bangkok in late October, where Asylum […]
Asylum Access participated in Opportunity Collaboration in Ixtapa, Mexico, asking activists and investors dedicated to ending poverty to ensure their programs do not exclude refugees. Asylum Access Executive Director was honored as an Edna Award Winner of Note by the Berger-Marks Foundation and received the 2011 Jack Berman Award from the California Young Lawyers Association. […]
Name: Elizabeth Sandoval Office: Ecuador Age: 31 Hometown: Quito, Ecuador What made you volunteer as a VLA? My passion for human rights — refugee issues are interconnected with human rights and it is my goal to work within the human rights field because you’re always at the service of others. Law serves as an instrument […]
The following article is based on Asylum Access’s forthcoming report, “No Place Called Home”. **UPDATE** A PDF file of the report is now available online. Print copies are also available upon request. Please kindly contact Anna Chen at anna.chen@asylumaccess.org for any enquiries. After Tanzania’s 1998 Refugees Act made it an offence to live outside camps without […]
“All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Philosopher Nietzsche could well have been thinking of refugees and asylum seekers undergoing the refugee determination process (RSD). Displaced from their countries and forced to build a new life from scratch, […]
Asylum Access leadership staff from Ecuador, Thailand, Tanzania and San Francisco gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to attend the UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs. Asylum Access Executive Director Emily Arnold-Fernández was profiled by the San Francisco Examiner’s Credo column. Asylum Access Tanzania formed a coalition of human rights organizations to advocate for improved rights for refugees […]