Miriam’s Story
“Oh my God! I don’t even know where to start. I have so much to thank Asylum Access Tanzania for. The trainings we have been receiving about our rights, the legal assistance my family and I received, and the biggest of all: I owe my family’s freedom to stay in Dar Es Salaam to Asylum Access. Now my family and I can live in peace, free from police harassment and arrest. May God repay you, Asylum Access Tanzania.”
- Miriam, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Miriam was a businesswoman and mother of five in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When war broke out, her husband, a local politician, was killed. Miriam, her mother, and her children fled on foot the same night.
“The Maimai surrounded our house and pushed the door in by force. When they entered, they caught my husband. They tied his hands behind his back and took all my clothes off in front of my children.
“Then one of the Maimai soldiers stabbed him in the neck with a knife. I cried to them, ‘Please don’t kill my husband! Please don’t kill him!’ They said if I didn’t want my husband to be killed, I should just open my legs ‘and we will have sex with you.’” She told them she would do anything to save her husband, but the soldiers killed him anyway. “We put the body of my husband in the house and we left the city and started running on foot.”
Miriam fled to Dar Es Salaam, but a new country didn’t mean safety for refugees from DR Congo. Miriam and her family were constantly at risk of arrest. Miriam was robbed. Her grandson was jeered at and insulted. “I had no place to claim any rights, since my family and I had no permit to stay in Dar Es Salaam.”
Then Miriam came to a Know Your Rights training at Asylum Access Tanzania. She returned for individual legal assistance, and Asylum Access eventually helped her family secure residency permits in Dar Es Salaam.
Ali’s Story
Ali, raised in a Pakistani Muslim family, secretly converted to Christianity. “My family and I would go to Church for Sunday mass in secret,” he says. Soon, however, Ali’s beliefs were discovered.
“One day, Islamic fundamentalists armed with guns kidnapped me. They held me for hours. During this time they badly beat, kicked and punched me. They asked me many questions about my faith. They warned me not to adopt Christian thoughts. After that they threw me on the road. I tried to report the information to the police but they refused to take any legal action. Then I moved to another town.”
Ali and his family moved twice within Pakistan, but the death threats followed them. Eventually, they knew they had to leave Pakistan for good. “We were compelled to exile for survival, with empty hands. We were strangers to everyone in Thailand. We had to present our matter in legal form to seek a proper legal remedy, but we were not able to seek legal consultation with empty hands.” When Ali found Asylum Access, he and his family could finally access the legal help they needed and obtain permission to remain in Thailand.
“Thank God we could reach AAT and get free legal aid. Lawyers and volunteer staff of AAT, working for human rights, received us with love and helping hands to assist us free of cost. May God bless all sponsors, lawyers, management staff, translators and all other volunteers working and supporting Asylum Access.”
Julia’s Story
Julia fled the civil war in Colombia, seeking safety in Ecuador. Unfortunately, she arrived when asylum laws were highly restrictive, and was denied protection by Ecuador’s refugee office. Already having endured displacement and violence in Colombia, Julia now had to fight for her international legal right to a safe haven.
With the help of Asylum Access, Julia appealed her denial of refugee status. Again she was denied protection.
Julia saw a glimmer of hope when, in 2009, Ecuador liberalized its refugee policy in an effort to protect 50,000 or more Colombian refugees living on the northern border. But again, Julia was denied refugee status on an obscure legal technicality.
Finally, in 2010, a well-argued legal brief written by AAE, paired with Julia’s tireless advocacy (including letters to cabinet members and the President), won Julia the legal protection she deserved. After denying her petitions on four separate occasions, the refugee office ultimately admitted its mistake and approved Julia’s petition for refugee status.
Given her long struggles with the Ecuadorian government and the suffering Julia had already endured in Colombia, the United Nations refugee agency determined that Julia should have the chance to begin afresh in a new country – an opportunity available to less than one percent of the world’s refugees. Just before she boarded a plane out of Ecuador, Julia called Asylum Access Ecuador in tears of joy, thanking us for helping her escape years of persecution and vulnerability. She is now beginning her next chapter in a safe new home.
Summer Soiree 2011 Video – Keynote Speaker: Nora Quiñonez
Nora Quiñonez is a refugee from Colombia who fled across the border to Ecuador in 2003. Today, she is a businesswoman, a volunteer Community Legal Advisor and a social entrepreneur. Her inspiring life story was first broadcast on Thursday, July 14, 2011, at Asylum Access’s 6th Annual Summer Soiree.
Peter’s Story
Peter was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he lived with his wife and three young children. He was a local political leader associated with the dominant political party. When a new political party came into power, members of his party were persecuted and murdered.
Peter was terrified that his children would be murdered, or that they would be left as orphans in a volatile, violent situation if he and his wife were killed. He and his family fled by land, crossing the border into Tanzania in October 2000 and eventually arriving in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar Es Salaam.
In 2005, Peter was arrested by Tanzanian police. They released him with a deportation order that required him to leave Tanzania and return to DRC. Fearing for his life and the life of his family, Peter could not return home, so he sought government permission to remain legally in Tanzania. The Ministry of Home Affairs decided that he and his family should remain in a refugee camp in Kigoma, near the border with Congo.
Peter knew his family would not be safe so near Congo. Instead of going to the camp, he and his family remained secretly in Dar Es Salaam. Peter supports his family on a small wage from working in a tailor shop and is constantly at risk of arrest and detention living without a residency permit.
In October 2010, Peter approached Asylum Access Tanzania for help. Although his options are limited, we are helping him to obtain a work permit, which provides some protection from arrest. Although the situation for urban refugees in Tanzania is still difficult, our help allows refugees like Peter to obtain legal advice about their options and to assert their rights to the protection that is available, even as we continue to advocate for increased rights for refugees.
Maria’s Story
One year ago Maria came to the Asylum Access Ecuador office timid and unable to make eye contact with AAE staff. She came to appointments only at her father’s insistence and struggled to tell her story of gender-based violence and abuse. Through the Women’s Meetings, and in one-on-one consultations with AAE legal advocates, Maria developed tools to become her own advocate.
Not only was Maria able to find justice and healing herself—she now speaks with confidence in front of groups. In fact, Maria is now a legal advocate in her community, helping other women to seek justice and find healing.
Amelia – A Refugee’s Testimony
Rizha’s Story
Rizha, his wife and 2 young children lived peacefully in Pakistan. As an Ahmadi who did much volunteer work for his community as a youth leader, Rizha was forced to flee Pakistan because of death threats, which were brought home when an assassination attempt was made on his life. His wife begged him to leave as several Ahmadis in similar positions in the community had already faced brutal beatings and were even murdered. To save his family from persecution and his own life, he sought refuge in Thailand.
The family was denied refugee status by UNHCR on their first attempt, on the basis that that it is possible to live elsewhere in Pakistan as long as he lived unobtrusively. But as a prominent Ahmadi activist, it was impossible to relocate without coming to the attention of extremist Muslims. The persecution of the Ahmadiyya community is wholly legalized, even encouraged, by the Pakistani government. Pakistan’s “Blasphemy Law,” as section 295-C of the Penal Code is known, makes the death penalty mandatory for blasphemy. And Rizha knew that no matter where he was, he would work for the well-being of his people and be active member of the Ahmadi community.
With the help of a volunteer lawyer from Asylum Access Thailand, he was able to make his case persuasively regarding the dangers he faced in Pakistan, as the threats came not only from specific local communities but also from a state that did not protect Ahmadi people. Rizha worked on a detailed and revised testimonial with an AAT lawyer, and was able to make his case clear to the UNHCR officer in the appeal process. He and his family were recently given refugee status, and are now awaiting resettlement.
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Asylum Access’s personalized legal advice, counsel and representation give refugees the information they need to assert their rights. Our legal advocates help refugees obtain legal status through the asylum-seeking process, enabling them to assert their rights such as the right to safe and legal employment, the right to education and the right to protection from injustice. We also advocate for fairness and transparency in the asylum-seeking process to prevent any refugees from falling between the cracks. We provide direct legal assistance and education to over 5,000 refugees annually in Ecuador, Thailand and Tanzania, reaching hundreds of thousands more through policy advocacy and strategic litigation.
