Asylum Access Launches New Refugee Legal Aid Projects
Asylum Access has just initiated two new on-the-ground refugee legal aid projects in partnership with organizations in Egypt and South Africa, kicking off its direct legal services to refugees in the global south.
In Egypt, Asylum Access will partner with AMERA-Egypt to develop mobile legal aid clinics, sending legal advocates into refugee communities outside of central Cairo.
In South Africa, Asylum Access will partner with the University of Cape Town Law Clinic to help refugees in and around Cape Town assert their rights to safety, police protection, and freedom from discrimination.
Mobile Clinics in Egypt
Currently, many refugees living on the outskirts of Cairo or in other cities such as Alexandria have no idea what their rights are, much less how to ensure that these rights are respected. Many lack the funds to travel to AMERA's office in Cairo. Others have physical disabilities which makes travel impossible. Still others face threats to their safety should they venture out in public.
The new mobile legal clinics will provide direct legal services to individual refugees and educate refugee communities on how to assert their legal rights. "With these clinics, we can reach refugees who, until now, had no idea that international law protects them from deportation and violence and gives them rights to things like education and healthcare," says Emily Arnold-Fernandez, Executive Director of Asylum Access.
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with AMERA-Egypt to put these important legal tools in the hands of refugees. Together, we're giving refugees from Darfur and other parts of Africa the power to ensure their own safety and begin rebuilding their lives."
Safety from Violence in South Africa
Asylum Access's other new venture helps refugees assert ongoing rights to safety and protection from violence in a new home.
In collaboration with the University of Cape Town Law Clinic, Asylum Access is launching a legal rights project that will train refugees to navigate the legal system to assert their rights within South Africa -- in particular, their right to police protection from xenophobic violence.
Recently, refugee communities in South Africa have experienced an escalation of xenophobic violence. It starts small: Shopkeepers find their windows smashed. Communities are warned not to venture out in public. But it soon escalates: Over 25 Somalis were killed in July 2006 alone. Refugees who call the police often receive no response.
The new project, dubbed "Sustained Advocacy For Empowered Refugees" or "SAFER," will educate refugees about their legal rights and mechanisms for asserting those rights, including procedures for reporting crimes, accessing police oversight boards if local law enforcement ignores community needs, and bringing civil rights violations before the South African Human Rights Commission.
"Obtaining legal status doesn't always guarantee that a refugee's other basic human rights will be respected," says Arnold-Fernandez. "The SAFER project is a legal empowerment model that will ensure refugees are protected, not only from deportation back to a government that threatens their safety, but also from threats of violence within their adopted homes."