“I came to the US with only a backpack, as I was intending to stay for just a week. I had left my country to accompany my roommate to New York. She wanted to apply for asylum after the publishing house she founded was vandalized by a government-incited mob. While we were in New York, the political situation in our country deteriorated and the police raided our home. My colleagues at the human rights NGO where I worked warned me that it was not safe for me to return, as the police would be waiting for me at the airport with an arrest warrant. Arrest in my country, in the context of the current political problems, meant being detained indefinitely in terrible conditions and subjected to torture. I had no choice but to apply for asylum in the US. Having limited resources, I was glad to have found the Refugee Translation Project. They translated all my documents free of charge. The judge heard my case, and I was granted asylum.”

Client, NY