Canada (Refugees and Asylum) Apply to travel, study, work, or immigrate to Canada; apply for citizenship, a permanent resident card or refugee protection; check the status of your application or find a form. Apply for refugee status from within Canada; find out how to come to Canada as a refugee; sponsor a refugee or find refugee services in Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html
The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) works to find new ways to advance human rights and build a future free from torture. Through research, training, advocacy, and healing services for survivors, each initiative CVT undertakes plays a role in building a larger vision for the torture-rehab movement. This organization provides a bridge between torture victims, the local community, and society as a whole, working to restore human dignity one survivor at a time. CVT gives voice to people who were purposefully silenced by perpetrators of torture. In our nation’s capital, we show policymakers that there is hope and that survivors can regain productive lives: https://www.cvt.org/
The Dublin Regulation (sometimes referred to as Dublin III) is European Union law. It determines which country is responsible for examining an asylum application—normally the country where the asylum seeker first entered Europe. One of the aims of the regulation is to ensure that an individual does not make multiple applications for asylum in several Dublin member states. These include the member countries of the EU plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
There are various criteria for deciding why a country may be responsible for examining an asylum application. Some basic rules are:
- If you are an asylum-seeker who entered Europe and had your fingerprints taken in one Dublin country but you are now in a different Dublin country, then that country will ask the first country to take you back.
- If you applied for asylum in one Dublin country and were rejected by a final decision there, and then you moved to another Dublin country and did not apply for asylum, you may be sent back to the initial arrival country or returned to your country of origin or permanent residence or sent to a safe third country.
- If a country accepts responsibility for examining your application, you will be transferred within six months of the date when that country accepted responsibility or, if you challenge the decision, within six months from the time the court or tribunal decides that you may be sent to that country. This time limit can be extended to 18 months if you run away from the authorities or to 12 months if you are imprisoned.
- You have the right to say that you disagree with a decision to send you to another Dublin country. This is called an “appeal” or “review.” You can request a suspension of the transfer during the appeal. (The question of whether to file an appeal should be discussed with a lawyer or counseling service.)
- You can be detained if the authorities consider that there is a significant risk that you will run away because you do not want to be sent to another Dublin country. You have the right to challenge the detention order.
More information can be found here: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/25622/the-dublin-regulation-your-questions-answered
The mission of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is to help people worldwide whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster; to survive, recover, and gain control of their futures. The IRC responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with its main focus on women and girls who face discrimination, violence, and a lack of opportunities that rob them of their potential. In more than forty countries and over twenty U.S. cities, the IRC has dedicated teams who provide clean water, shelters, health care, education, and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people: https://www.rescue.org/
The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for refugees, displaced communities, and stateless people. Its site includes information and links about everything from asylum, refugees, protection services, and shelter to public health, education, advocacy, and more: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/
Search for assistance with the UNHCR by country: https://help.unhcr.org or by topic: https://help.unhcr.org/faq/
National Immigrant Justice Center from the Heartland Alliance Program is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the United States. With offices in Chicago, Indiana, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., the center provides direct legal services along with advocacy via policy reform, impact litigation, and public education: https://immigrantjustice.org/
Free legal representation for asylum-seekers in the United States from the National Immigrant Justice Center: https://immigrantjustice.org/services/asylum-seekers
The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is one of the leading organizations in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of low-income immigrants, believing that all people who live in the U.S. should have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. The NILC has been at the forefront of many of the country’s greatest challenges when it comes to immigration issues, and it plays a major leadership role in addressing the real-life impact of policies that affect the ability of immigrants to prosper and thrive.
It focuses on building a stronger, more inclusive immigrant justice movement and fostering intersectional alliances with other communities to amass the political power necessary to hold decision-makers accountable for making policy changes real and lasting. According to its edict, no matter where a person is born or how much money they have, every person has a stake and constructive role to play in shaping the country’s future: https://www.nilc.org/
Refugees International (RI) advocates for life-saving assistance and protection for displaced people, focusing its resources on the refugees and human rights issues that need urgent attention and action from government officials, policymakers, and other international organizations. RI personnel examine firsthand the conditions facing refugees and internally displaced people, and assessing the responses to those needs by governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and local and international aid organizations.
RI conducts robust advocacy, forges alliances with humanitarian aid groups, which ultimately strengthens assistance efforts for refugees and displaced people, improving their circumstances and elevating their security and dignity: https://www.refugeesinternational.org/
RefugePoint was founded to identify refugees who fell through the cracks of humanitarian aid, providing support to those with the most urgent needs. The agency developed a unique full-service response model for assisting urban refugees and facilitating their self-reliance, building a unique resettlement program that now partners with the UN Refugee Agency in twenty-eight countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Its primary focus is to find lasting solutions for refugees because its core belief is that it is to everyone’s benefit that refugees be given a chance to use their talents and skills to contribute to the global economy: https://www.refugepoint.org/
The Rights in Exile Programme promotes the legal protection of refugees, globally, and is run by AMERA International. The program works to achieve better protection of refugee rights by networking legal assistance providers with resources and training and facilitating access to free legal assistance and information for refugees around the world. Its Legal Resources link establishes a centralized database of contact details of free legal assistance providers in over 230 countries, a database of country of origin experts, its post-deportation monitoring project, and information on legal processes relating to refugees: https://www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/refugee-resources
US Department of Justice list of pro bono legal service providers in the United States: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/list-pro-bono-legal-service-providers
