Asylum and Its Discontents in the United States
Recently, I wrote about people from friendly countries receiving asylum in the United States. There are few such cases, and they generally seem to be aberrations. For these reasons, the source countries are not particularly concerned that we are granting asylum to their nationals. That is not always the case, however. Earlier this month, the United … Read more
The Paralympic Games wrapped up earlier this week in London, and like the Olympic Games, some athletes have decided to seek asylum rather than return home. Two athletes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata and Levy Kitambala Kinzito, have supposedly filed for asylum in the United Kingdom. Ms. Kimbata seems to … Read more
A new report from the Asylum-Network based on an 18-month study examines the challenges faced by asylum support groups in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the different ways the groups respond to those challenges. In preparing the report, the authors found that although there were many differences between asylum support groups in … Read more
In 2010, the United Kingdom created an “Action Plan” and committed to “make the asylum system as gender-sensitive as possible so that women and girls who have been persecuted through violence and/or discrimination can have every opportunity to make their case and to have their asylum application considered as fairly as possible.” Now, a new … Read more
A short-lived attempt by Great Britain to determine the nationality of asylum seekers was unceremoniously dumped after it became clear that the testing was of no scientific value. In 2009, the Brits started a (supposedly) voluntary program to test the DNA of asylum seekers from certain African countries. The idea was to reduce fraudulent applications … Read more
In the U.S., I know of two reported neo-Nazi asylum cases in the last couple years. In July 2008, Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle were convicted of publishing “race-hate” by the Leeds Crown Court in England. After receiving bail, the two men fled the UK for Los Angeles. On arrival at LAX, immigration officials took the two men–now dubbed the “heretical two”— into custody. The men filed for political asylum in the United States.