#asylum application

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Ireland has added itself to the list of European countries to suspend the processing of asylum applications by refugees from Syria.

The Irish minister for justice told Reuters on Wednesday that the international protection office would temporarily pause the issuing of final determinations while the situation in Syria was kept under review.

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK have all announced similar moves.

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Update:

An Afghan refugee and former Yale University student continued to be detained by federal immigration authorities on Thursday evening more than two days after an immigration judge issued an order releasing him on bond. Federal immigration authorities did not respond by Thursday evening to multiple requests for an explanation of the continued detention. Saifullah J. Khan, who was born in a Pakistani refugee camp after his family was forced from Afghanistan by the Taliban, has had an asylum application pending for 9 years. He was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who hit him with Tasers seven times on May 9 as he and his wife left an immigration hearing in the secure Hartford federal building. Khan required medical attention after his arrest[,] according to statements made in court. In late March, after years of what Khan’s lawyers characterized as “inaction on his asylum application,” he sued in an effort to compel U.S. immigration officials to settles the question. The suit names senior Trump administration figures, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Within weeks of naming Noem and the others, Khan received a notice that ICE had begun proceedings to deport him and he was ordered to appear at the hearing after which he was hit with the Tasers and taken into custody, according to the court filing. A witness has said Khan was confronted by plain clothes ICE agents who did not identify themselves and was trying to return to Hartford Immigration Judge Theodore Doolittle’s courtroom when he was taken into custody. After his arrest, Khan was held at a detention center in Plymouth, Mass. The order releasing him on $7,500 bond was issued early on May 27. Before his family could post bond, he was transferred to a privately run ICE processing center in Pennsylvania. It was unclear on what grounds immigration authorities continue to hold Khan in custody.

[gendertheftauto]

everything about US immigration law is evil obviously but today i’m thinking about the fact that there is a filing deadline for asylum—you have to file within a year of your entry, and economic hardship is not a compelling reason for filing late

[akeliciousmedia]

Thousands of Nigerian Asylum Applications Denied in Canada Over the Past Decade

Canada has rejected the asylum applications of at least 13,171 Nigerians between January 2013 and December 2024, with 811 rejections occurring in 2024 alone. This data, obtained from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), highlights the increasing difficulty for Nigerians seeking refuge in the country. The IRB grants refugee protection when…

[thoughtlessarse]

The number of asylum applications registered across the European Union, Norway and Switzerland decreased by 11% in 2024 but remained above the one-million mark for a second consecutive year, according to the annual report released by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) on Monday morning. Overall, 1,014,420 requests for international protection were filed last year, compared to the 1,143,437 requests recorded in 2023. Notably, the report shows that almost half (48%) of the one million applications were submitted by citizenships with historically low chances of a successful decision, suggesting they are likely to be eventually turned down by national authorities. The trend is set to compound the recurring worries of EU member states, which have asked Brussels to reform the current legislation to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers, such as economic migrants who come to the continent searching for better living conditions rather than escaping persecution or ill-treatment. The European Commission has endorsed the contentious idea of building camps (also known as "return hubs") outside EU territory to transfer those whose applications are denied. A revamped Return Directive is expected to be unveiled later this month.

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Any concentration camps set up outside the EU borders will be rife with human rights abuses, and that whether run by EU or local authorities.

[munaeem]

Germany’s Deportation Drama: Pakistanis Out, Politics In

So, last week—February 27, 2025, to be exact—Germany sent 43 Pakistanis packing on a charter flight from Frankfurt to Islamabad. Picture this: a plane loaded with folks from Germany, Austria, and Cyprus. Among them, 19 had rap sheets ranging from public intoxication to serious stuff like violent crimes. The rest? Likely a mix of illegal entry cases or asylum applications that got the big red…

[lexlawuk]

Refugees: Good Character Guidance

The UK Home Office has recently introduced significant amendments to its Good Character guidance, impacting refugees applying for British citizenship. Effective from 10 February 2025, these stricter measures mean that many individuals may face increased barriers to naturalisation. At Lexvisa, our specialist immigration team is here to help. As a leading London law firm, we are dedicated to…

[rightscoop]

Italian judges block Meloni's plan to hold asylum applicants in Albania

The Italian judges again denied the government’s request to hold asylum applicants in Albania while their cases are processed, dealing with another important setback for the anti -immigrant policy of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. It was the third decision against politics since the right -wing government of Mrs. Meloni began to carry out the plan in October, which has become a flagship of its…

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PRIMA PAGINA The Guardian di Oggi martedì, 10 dicembre 2024

[familiasunidasla]

Familias Unidas LA

Familias Unidas Counseling Center is positioned as a pivotal resource for immigrants in California, focusing on delivering comprehensive psychological evaluations critical for various immigration procedures, such as asylum, U-Visa, T Visa, hardship, and VAWA evaluations. This center prides itself on an array of services designed specifically for the immigrant community and their families, encompassing trauma therapy and broad mental health services. The provision of bilingual psychological services underscores its dedication to inclusivity, ensuring no language barriers hinder access to their care. Beyond the core offerings tailored to immigration-related needs, we also offer Bariatric psychological evaluations and life coaching.

Business Hours- Mon - Wed: 9 AM–5:30 PM; Thu-Sun: Closed

Contact Info- Familias Unidas LA

Address: 5717 E Beverly Blvd, East Los Angeles, CA 90022 Phone:+1 23–894–0421 Business Email: info@familiasunidasla.com Website: https://familiasunidasla.com/

[minnesotafollower]

Proposed New U.S. Restriction on Asylum Applications 

On May 9, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed new restriction on applications for asylum in U.S. that would allow U.S. asylum officers to remove any foreigner deemed to be a danger to U.S. security at the initiai credible fear screening immediately after being apprehended at the U.S. border.[1] The Announcement “Federal law bars individuals who pose a national security…

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Houston, Texas: Where Asylum Cases Come To Die! Some Immigration Lawyers Relish A Challenge

— By Dan Halpern | April 14, 2024 | 1843 Magazine

So this is what I want you to say: that you fear you would be killed.” It was early March and Laure Dachelet, a lawyer based in Houston, Texas, was preparing a client who was about to present his asylum case before a judge. “I mean, they threatened to kill you several times. They put a bomb in front of your house. So the intention to kill you was pretty clear. You need to say so.”

The client, a 30-year-old man called Farid, nodded gently. It had been a long wait to get to this point. Farid had fled Afghanistan in 2014 and, after a perilous three-year journey to America that took him through a dozen countries, applied for asylum in 2017; he had yet to see a judge, seven years later. Until 2014 he had worked as a translator for the British Army and the Afghan national police at a military base outside Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province. Driving home one night, after his last day at work, he was stopped by Taliban forces.

“The Taliban beat me and then let me go,” was how Farid had initially described the incident. With Dachelet’s prodding, a longer narrative emerged. The Taliban had accused him of working with the enemy. Farid insisted that he was coming back from a doctor’s appointment. They beat him and interrogated him, but Farid stuck to his story and finally they let him go. Days later the Taliban found proof that he had worked with the British. They told Farid’s father that they would kill his son when they found him, then they bombed Farid’s home.

The Taliban Found Proof That Farid Had Worked With The British. They Told His Father That They Would Kill His Son When They Found Him, Then They Bombed Farid’s Home

Dachelet, who had previously been a judge in the French family courts, explained that the judge would try to suss out whether Farid was telling the truth. She would evaluate his demeanour, watch for whether he answered or avoided questions, check whether his story was consistent with his written declaration and documents. That was always the danger for an asylum-seeker: an applicant could have all the boxes ticked, but a judge was free to decide he was lying. The more detailed your story, the more likely a judge is to believe it. But asylum lawyers need to weigh up carefully how much information their clients provide. The more they offer, the greater the possibility that under examination they will confuse or misremember events.

Farid mentioned that before they took him to be interrogated, the Taliban had covered his face with a scarf. Why had they done that, asked Dachelet?

“In Islam, in the religion, if your clothes are bloody, you cannot pray on that day, you will need to change your clothes,” said Farid. “So they didn’t want to get blood on their—”

Dachelet interrupted. “Why were you bleeding?”

“Oh, because they hit me with the back of the gun.”

“OK, this is why we need to be more detailed,” said Dachelet. “You need to say, one of them hit me in the face with the butt of the AK-47 and I started bleeding. You talk about the scarf, and the blood, and we don’t really make the connection. I know your story, you know your story. Let’s pretend the judge and the attorney for the government don’t know your story.”

She asked Farid what date he arrived in America. He thought about it before replying: “2017. August, or September.”

“July,” Dachelet said.

“July? I don’t think it was July,” Farid said.

“July is what we said on your declaration,” Dachelet said.

This mistake was concerning. A judge is on the lookout for inconsistencies in an applicant’s story – the de facto rule is that three mistakes like this can be grounds for rejection. One judge may have some sympathy for the argument that no one can remember every date and detail of their life story perfectly accurately; another may have none.

In this case, Farid’s mistake might have resulted from his confusion over how dates are formatted in America – with the month before the day – which is different from how other countries do it. But it’s exactly the kind of thing some judges could use to deny his claim. He would need to stick to July.

Dachelet explained that, in order to grant asylum, the judge would need to be convinced that Farid was likely to face persecution if he returned home. “What makes you think you might be in danger if you went home?” she asked. “This all happened ten years ago, don’t you think they’ll have just forgotten about it?

A Judge Is On The Lookout For Inconsistencies In An Applicant’s Story – The de Facto Rule Is That Three Mistakes Like This Can Be Grounds For Rejection

“When the Taliban took over, they announced that they were forgiving all the people, wherever you worked…[They said] we are forgiving them, they can come, they come and be peaceful,” Farid said. “A lot of people went back. Most of them disappeared.”

Farid’s case seemed undeniable. He had a terrible story, a credible fear that he would be persecuted if he were deported, both for who he was and what he had done; he had documents proving what he said was true. He had been in the country for seven years, working long hours as a truck driver, a lawful contributor to society, if not yet a full member of it. But Houston is where asylum cases come to die.

Nationally, immigration courts grant asylum in about four out of ten cases. Houston’s courts, in common with those in Charlotte, Atlanta, Kansas City and a few other places, grant asylum in one out of ten. San Francisco’s courts, by contrast, approve seven out of ten asylum claims, while New York’s courts approve six out of ten.

These disparities can be partly explained by the fact that different kinds of migrants tend to settle in different cities. More Central Americans, for instance, come to Texas; more Asians come to California. Their cases for asylum tend to be very different.

Whether or not a case is successful can also depend on the judge. A national study of disparities in asylum adjudications found, for example, that Colombian applicants who brought their cases in Miami were granted asylum by one judge in 88% of cases, whereas another – in the same building – granted it only 5% of the time.

On the one hand Farid was unlucky. According to his lawyers, the judge who would be presiding over his case had previously rejected nine out of ten asylum applications (although the huge majority of her cases had come from Central America and Mexico, whose citizens have very low rates of successful applications across the court systems).

On the other hand, he was lucky that his case had been taken on by a law firm with an impressive record in asylum cases. Dachelet works for Political Asylum Lawyers, which was founded in 2020 by Brian Manning (above), a former asylum officer. It is unusual among immigration law firms: although most take on asylum cases, very few are dedicated to them. Manning told me that out of the 39 cases the firm has seen to conclusion over the past two years, only eight have resulted in deportation.

Manning grew up in Oklahoma and came from a background much like everyone he knew: white, Christian and conservative. He played high-school football and went to church on Sundays. Most of his contemporaries stayed in their home state. But in his third year at university, Manning spent a semester in St Petersburg, Russia, and felt the world open up. He finished law school, got married and joined the foreign service, working in Croatia, Bulgaria and Chile. He and his wife adopted two boys from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the couple loved living abroad, they wanted to raise their children in America, near their families. Early in 2017, as Donald Trump took office, they returned home.

Asylum-Seekers Typically Have No More Than An Hour To Convince An Asylum Officer That They Face A Significant Risk Of Persecution If They Return Home

Manning yearned for a career where he was “actually helping people and doing a good thing”. In Bulgaria, he had visited a camp for Syrian refugees, which had given him the idea to specialise in asylum law. He got a job as an asylum officer, working for the immigration service in Houston. He spent his days conducting “credible fear” interviews: one of the first steps in the asylum process. Asylum-seekers typically have no more than an hour to convince an asylum officer that they face a significant risk of persecution if they return home. If they pass, they can apply for asylum. If they fail, they have a right to appeal against the decision before a judge.

It was a tough job. “You’re hearing stories all day about torture and terrible things happening to people,” he said, “and you either think that they’re lying to you, which is frustrating, or you believe it, and you’re like, this is how this person had to live? This is what this person had to go through? My God.” Asylum officers typically burnt out around a year and a half in, Manning said, many of them suffering from a sort of secondary ptsd.

Most of the people he interviewed were from Central America, and described terrible poverty and violence: “You won’t join my gang? We’re going to kill you. You can’t pay my extortion fee for your shop? We’re going to kill you.” But as tragic as their stories were, most of the applicants were unlikely to satisfy the authorities handling their claims. People seeking asylum in America must demonstrate that they have suffered or were likely to suffer persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.

During the two years he worked as an asylum officer, Manning was depressed by the quality of asylum lawyers he met, most of whom, he said, were lousy, lazy and ineffective. Not that he encountered them that often. Asylum hearings are civil not criminal proceedings, so the government is not required to provide a lawyer, and few applicants can afford one. Sometimes asylum-seekers were helped by lawyers from non-profit organisations, who were generally excellent, said Manning, although there weren’t enough of them.

It was this feeling – that there were deserving applicants who were being let down by the system – that drove him to start his own firm. Manning felt that his experience playing for the other side, so to speak, could help his clients navigate a system of Byzantine complexity. He reckons that specialising in asylum law makes it easier to stay on top of the frequent changes to the law, something that a firm with a wider range of immigration issues might find challenging.

One piece of advice he gives his clients is knowing when it’s OK to admit you’ve lied. Because you can apply for asylum only once you are in America, and can’t get a visa to ask for asylum, many refugees claim they are coming for a holiday, even though they fully intend to overstay their tourist visa. “This kind of lie is not held against you at an asylum hearing,” Manning said. “But it is a problem if you say at your asylum interview that you’ve never lied in connection with a us immigration matter.” That is, you can lie to get here, but not lie about having lied. This is a favourite technique, he said, of asylum officers looking for excuses to reject applicants.

Manning Shares His Tips On Social Media, Including TikTok And Instagram. He’s Doing It To Attract Business, But Also To Help Those Who Can’t Afford His Services

Manning shares his tips on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. He’s doing it to attract business, but also to help those who can’t afford his services. The videos are professionally made, with choppy, attention-grabbing edits. “What if I told you you can pretty much win your asylum case before you ever set foot in the asylum office for your interview?” he says in one video, which takes viewers through creating an “asylum roadmap”. Most asylum officers are overworked and stressed, said Manning. They appreciate being presented with a package containing all the necessary information and legal reasoning: a written narrative, evidence to support it, and a description of the political conditions in the applicant’s homeland. It works, says Manning, “because you’ve done much of their work for them”.

Farad’s hearing took place on a Monday morning. He had the dates right this time, told his story clearly, and addressed the questions from the government lawyer directly and honestly. But there’s no such thing as an open-and-shut case, especially in asylum law. “I still get nervous, I’m certainly emotionally invested,” Manning said. “That’s natural for anyone working with these kinds of high stakes, or working with so much trauma. Did I cover everything I need to cover? Did I prepare enough for any surprises? I’ll go over it and over it.”

The hearing lasted just under an hour. “I’m inclined to grant the application,” the judge told Farid. The lawyer for the government said they would not appeal. It seemed done and dusted. Except it wasn’t, quite. Farid’s biometric information (including his fingerprints and photographs) were missing from the government’s file. Somehow, in the seven years he had been waiting, they had been misplaced. The judge couldn’t grant asylum until Farid made an appointment to have his biometric information recorded again. To get an appointment, he was told, he would have to wait only another few months. ■

— Dan Halpern is a Feature Writer ✍️ For 1843 Magazine | Illustrations: James Wilson | Images: Getty, Reuters

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For Leen (@leenmata1) and her children, this is not a choice. Since the only food they have are flour infested with insects, either they eat the food filled with insects, or they starve.

Leen has 5 children, the youngest of whom is only 2-years old while the oldest is only 15. Her husband Ahmed is responsible for caring for not only his family, but also his sick elderly parents and his married brother with his 2 children. To do so, Ahmed decided to migrate and apply for asylum in another country a week before the current war with hopes that he may find a better way to provide for his family. However, Ahmed cannot work while his asylum application is getting processed, and he has no way to help his family who is trapped in Gaza right now.

Leen and her children are now living in a refugee camp. Their home has been destroyed, and they have no income and no food. Please help Leen and her children survive and reunite with Ahmed!

This campaign is vetted by @/gazavetters and is #33 on their Gaza vetted fundraisers list!

€2,245 raised of €64K target (4%)!

tagging for reach

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@ahmedmatatsblog, @leenmata1, @leenmata123

[thoughtlessarse]

An Italian navy ship arrived in Albania on Tuesday taking 49 migrants intercepted in international waters for processing of their asylum applications at special Albanian centres, the third such attempt following hurdles earlier raised by Italian courts. Italy’s Interior Ministry did not specify the nationality of the migrants taken to the port of Shengjin, 40 miles (66km) north-west of the capital, Tirana, but Italian media said they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia. The attempt at processing in Albania follows two previous failures in October and November, when Italian judges refused to approve the detention of two small groups at the Albanian centres, built under a contentious agreement between Italy and Albania. The courts ruled that the migrants’ countries of origin were not safe enough for them to face the possibility of being sent back by the centres. The cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, which earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure that could lead to repatriation if their home countries are not deemed completely safe.

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