Asylum Success! Social Activists Become New New Yorkers

Our client Francisco and his partner Eduard found peace and safety after a terrifying ordeal in their home country. The free translation services we were able to provide thanks to the generous support of our donors contributed to their successful plea for asylum, which was granted this month. 

Francisco and Eduard were living in a small town in Colombia where they advocated for healthcare for their community. One morning they awoke to find a pamphlet on the door of their house, which they were remodeling. The pamphlet was authored by a paramilitary group. It demanded the couple leave their neighborhood because the group did not accept gay people in the area. The pamphlet warned that if Francisco and Eduard did not stop their health advocacy and leave, the group would carry out a “social cleansing.” Francisco and Eduard ignored the threat, but a few weeks later, a group of men in military fatigues accosted them on the main street of their town and pointed rifles at them. They ordered Francisco and Eduard to stop the construction work on their house and leave, and told them that if they did not comply, they would make the couple “disappear,” a euphemism for kidnapping them and torturing them to death. 

Fearing for their lives, Francisco and Eduard moved a few hundred miles away to a bigger city. They left the renovations in the hands of a relative. Several months passed without incident. Then one afternoon, another group of men approached them near their house in the city. They hurled homophobic slurs at them and told them to stop the construction on their house in the small town. Fortunately, a passerby prompted the would-be attackers to leave. However, the threats soon resumed. A week later, two men dressed in black attacked them outside their front door late at night as they were returning home. Francisco suffered bruises on his body and Eduard lost several teeth. Again the attackers referred to their sexual orientation. After this attack, Francisco and Eduard were overwhelmed with fear and anxiety and felt they were constantly being followed.

They appealed to the country’s federal law enforcement for protection, but to no avail. They quickly realized that their only option was to leave Colombia. Francisco and Eduard arrived in New York City and needed help translating their documents. A caseworker from the Libertas Center for Human Rights referred them to the Refugee Translation Project this past summer. We translated over 30 pages of legal and medical documents, which were instrumental in proving their asylum claim. 

Our supporters contributed to this success story! Donations you make to the Refugee Translation Project provide free translation support to people fleeing violence and persecution. Please help us continue bringing people to safety by making a donation to our End of Year Fundraising Campaign!

Save the Date: Ice Cream Social at the Social!

You’re invited to our Ice Cream Social at the Social! Enjoy an ice cream as we celebrate our first year as an official independent nonprofit and raise funds to provide free language services to asylum seekers. 

🗓️ Wednesday, November 29
🕕 6:00 PM
📍The Social, 816 Washington Ave, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY USA

RSVP here! Your donation of $30 or more comes with a coupon redeemable for an ice cream or drink! Our fundraiser is free and open to the public with opportunities to donate through a community-supported raffle! 

Check out the raffle prizes here!

Asylum Success! Silvia’s Story: Under Threat as a Garifuna Woman in Honduras

Our client Silvia was recently granted asylum in the US! Here is her story: 
 
“‘They are shooting at us! They shot him!’ people were screaming,” recalls Silvia. The man was an active member of OFRANEH, an organization that protects the Garifuna culture and their ancestral community lands in Honduras.
 
The Garifuna are a black indigenous people whom British colonizers exiled to a deserted Honduran island. The Garifuna people then created communities along the coast, but the Honduran state marginalizes them and denies their claim to land. 
 
Silvia recalls a particularly traumatizing day while she was participating with OFRANEH in their effort to recover communal lands under threat. Garifuna community members were at risk of eviction from their collective lands for real estate gain by an influential family. As Silvia, her fellow OFRANEH members, and Garifuna community members stood in protest within their collective property, suddenly a gunshot rang out and a Garifuna man fell to the ground.
 
Everything happened very fast. “I felt paralyzed by fear,” says Silvia. “I thought they had killed him. I thought they were going to kill me, kill everyone.” Community members were pointing at men in plain clothes outside the fence, saying that they had fired the shot. These men were members of the influential family. Even after the man was shot, the police on the scene did nothing to help, so community members had to pick him up from the ground and take him to the hospital.
 
Silvia was terrified she would end up in a similar violent situation again and felt intimidated for her involvement with OFRANEH. To make things worse, Silvia was later forced out of her home by armed members of an extremely violent street gang because they believed that Silvia had witnessed a crime they had recently committed in her neighborhood.  Without help or protection from the police, she realized she could no longer stay in Honduras, so she began the difficult journey to the United States to safeguard her life.
 
She could no longer contact her family out of fear they would be persecuted. Alone in a new land, she turned to TakeRoot Justice, a New York nonprofit, to take on her case.
 
After arriving to the U.S., she learned that the Honduran government was prosecuting OFRANEH members for still protecting the Garifuna community’s lands. Members of OFRANEH were being arrested under the false charge of “usurping land.”
 
“They could put me in jail, or they could kill me,” Silvia feared.
 
Faced with over 40 pages of documents that needed translation, which would have cost upwards of $1800 commercially, TakeRoot Justice reached out to the Refugee Translation Project. We provided the translations of these documents for Silvia’s asylum application free of charge, which was only possible thanks to the generous support of our donors. We were thrilled to learn that Silvia was granted asylum last month, allowing her to finally find peace and safety.
 
The Refugee Translation Project is committed to providing free and timely services to our clients, which play an instrumental role in positive asylum outcomes. Our current Summer of Refuge fundraising campaign supports our continuing efforts to provide these crucial services to more asylum seekers.