Asylum Access

Overseas Refugee Rights Lawyering:
Asylum Access Seeks Volunteer Legal Advocates

Want to be part of making refugee rights a reality? Asylum Access is looking for volunteer lawyers and highly-qualified law students who can commit to spending 3 months or more in Africa, Asia or Latin America, providing legal counsel and representation to refugees seeking asylum or other legal status. Volunteer legal advocates receive an intensive training in international refugee law, and practice before local offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or local refugee status adjudicators. Volunteers may also have the opportunity to engage in policy advocacy at a national or international level. All volunteers are responsible for their own travel and living expenses.

Asylum Access is currently recruiting volunteer legal advocates for its anticipated refugee legal aid projects in Ecuador (starting June 2007) and Thailand (starting October 2007). Asylum Access also expects to open other offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America in 2008 and beyond.

Requirements for the Legal Advocate Position are as follows:

1. Previous international experience
2. Attorney, law student or equivalent
3. Experience working with clients in a public interest setting OR experience working with refugees or other survivors of trauma
4. Ability to cover all travel and living expenses in the global south
5. 3 month minimum commitment
6. For Ecuador, fluency in oral and written Spanish is also required. To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, and writing sample to Executive Director Emily E. Arnold-Fernandez at volunteer@asylumaccess.org . Please specify your countries or regions of interest and the dates you are available.

Asylum Access is an innovative U.S. nonprofit that provides on-the-ground legal counsel and representation to refugees in Africa, Asia and Latin America, helping them to obtain asylum and assert other rights in their first countries of refuge, within the global south. Instead of merely providing humanitarian handouts, Asylum Access helps refugees assert their rights to safety, empowering them to seek employment, send children to school, and begin rebuilding their lives.

Please feel free to circulate this announcement widely!