Asylum Access reached a critical milestone in our short history. In 2011 alone, we reached over 5,000 refugees with direct legal services in Ecuador, Tanzania and Thailand for the first time ever. Asylum Access is proud to be a partner in International Defense Coalition’s Campaign to End Immigration Detention of Children. To raise awareness about the […]
A Photo Essay by Nitsan Tal Above, Maria shows us a certificate from a journalism course. She is a second-generation refugee who left Colombia with her family when she was just eleven years’ old. Now seventeen, she hopes to study accountancy or journalism at university. Photographer Nitsan Tal visited us to learn about our work and […]
After months of planning, Asylum Access Tanzania launched its inaugural Women’s Empowerment Group on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2011, creating a peer support group where women could learn and be empowered in a collective setting. A year ago, when a volunteer legal advocate (VLA) was campaigning for non-inquiry policies to allow women to […]
Published May 2012 An interview with former Associate Launch Director Vivienne Chew. Five years after she left Asylum Access Thailand (AAT), Associate Launch Director Vivienne Chew visited our office in Bangkok to say hello and learn more about our growing work with the local refugee community. Here are some of her impressions and thoughts on […]
View the photo essay “We needed to seek asylum somewhere where there was peace. Tanzania was the closest country. But to live, we need something to live, somewhere to sleep. We didn’t come with anything like money,” says Lwenga, a Congolese refugee in Dar es Salaam. He tells this to me as he explains why […]
I first attended the “Encuentros de Mujeres” (Meetings of Women) in August 2011, during my first weekend in Quito, Ecuador. I have long been interested in sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) issues, and was eager to volunteer at a workshop. Since 2010, Asylum Access has been organizing these workshops to provide a safe haven for […]
Executive Director Emily Arnold-Fernandez spoke at the International Human Rights Funders Group Conference 2012 on mainstreaming refugees into human rights discourse. Our Right to Work blog has been receiving record hits in recent months. Read about U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UNHCR High Commissioner António Guterres’ support for lawful employment for refugees. Asylum […]
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 […]