We have impacted over 1 million lives, and counting.
OUR IMPACT
How we measure our impact
We evaluate our success by assessing our impact on:
- Individual refugees and families;
- A country’s progress toward increased human rights for refugees; and
- Actions by powerful global institutions that, by influencing national policy or practice, result in concrete impacts for refugees.
Our impact over the past almost two decades
143,000
We’ve reached at least 143,000 refugees with legal empowerment services
1,087,000+
Our contributions to policy change have impacted over 1 million refugees
Notable policy wins to which we contributed:
- 2020 – the Mexican Congress votes unanimously to end the detention of migrant children.
- 2020 – the Thai government begins implementing its own asylum process that will grant legal status for refugees in the country for the very first time.
- 2019 – the Thai government signs a memorandum of understanding stating they would no longer detain refugee children.
- 2018 – the African Court of Human and People’s Rights orders Tanzanian citizenship restored to our plaintiff after the Tanzanian state stripped it from him. The decision subjects all States’ legislation regarding nationality disputes and deportations in the Court’s jurisdiction to review and reform, which impacts stateless, refugee and migrant populations in 30 countries in the region.
- 2017 – Ecuador passes the Human Mobility Law, giving increased effect to Constitutional guarantees by enshrining robust refugee protections and rights in national law, and promoting the full integration of refugees living in Ecuador.
- 2016 – the Tanzanian government begins issuing written reasons for rejection in asylum hearings, increasing the likelihood of refugee recognition and decreasing the likelihood of refugees being deported.
Annual Reach
Asylum Access organizations reach 25,000+ refugees annually with legal empowerment services. Through our partnerships, our NGO partners reach an additional 40,000+ refugees each year.
For more information on our annual impact, please visit our Reports page.
What our clients are saying:
Before joining Asylum Access Thailand’s DCA [Democratic Collective Action] group, I was very shy and nervous. AAT is a big supporter for me. AAT’s community outreach program and staff provide me with advice and guidance, so I have gradually started to talk with more and more people. Now, I also help people in our community as an interpreter and coordinate our groups networks.
Nadia (named changed to protect her identity), a Pakistani woman who fled to Thailand at age 13.
My name is Uba. I am a tired mother that faced challenges in life. There are people who advocate for human rights. I am talking about Asylum Access lawyers. They advocate for the people. They have tolerance and don’t feel tiredness. They don’t consider money instead they advocate for the victims.
They protect you from being oppressed, demoralized and being killed. They advocate to protect you from the people who agreed to kill you and oppress you. They feel the tiredness and difficulties faced by the mother. They advocate while they are not feeling tiredness and while they are not getting paid and they advocate for the oppressed women who were killed while they did not commit a crime.
Asylum Access advocates for you when you are a mother that has been jailed and can’t differentiate day and night. A mother that cries and her kids are not with her. A mother that doesn’t have a family who visits her. A mother that can’t eat food and can’t sleep. A mother who is sick and got swollen. A mother who doesn’t have one baht to pay her home bills.
These emotional words came from my own feelings and it’s because of the oppression I faced. Thanks to all lawyers who work at Asylum Access.
Uba (name changed to protect her identity), a Somali single mother of three we freed from detention in Thailand.