The Asylumist

One of my more memorable cases involved testimony from my client’s uncle, a well-known singer from Ethiopia who had been living in exile in Sweden and the U.S. since 1974. He was testifying about conditions in Ethiopia and whether it was safe for his nephew (my client) to return home. He mentioned that even after 40 years away, many of his songs were about Ethiopia. I asked him about his feeling towards his homeland. “I love my country,” he responded. Did he want to return? “If I could, I would return tomorrow.” It’s a beautiful and sad testament to a life lived in exile, and it is not an uncommon story.

The Refugee All Stars embody the old proverb, "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward." (Balboa 3:16). — The Refugee All Stars embody the old proverb, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.” (Balboa 3:16).

It seems there is a natural connection between exile and art. Some artists are forced into exile after their art offends the powers that be. Others create art to remember their previous lives or to help heal themselves and their loved ones. I suppose there are as many motivations for art as there are artists, but memories of a homeland lost are a particularly powerful muse.

In that vein, one of my favorite musicians is Enrico Macias, an Algerian Jew who had to leave his country during the war of independence in 1961. He has not returned to Algeria since, but many of his songs reference his homeland and the loss he experienced by leaving.

Recently, I’ve learned about a band called the Refugee All Stars, which is currently touring American (their schedule is here). Members of the band are from Sierra Leone, and their story is inspiring:

Throughout the 1990s, the West African country of Sierra Leone was wracked with a bloody, horrifying war that forced millions to flee their homes. The musicians that would eventually form Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are all originally from Freetown, and they were forced to leave the capital city at various times after violent rebel attacks. Most of those that left the country made their way into neighboring Guinea, some ending up in refugee camps and others struggling to fend for themselves in the capital city of Conakry.

Ruben Koroma and his wife Grace had left Sierra Leone in 1997 and found themselves in the Kalia refugee camp near the border with Sierra Leone. When it became clear they would not be heading back to their homeland anytime soon, they joined up with guitarist Francis John Langba (aka Franco), and bassist Idrissa Bangura (aka Mallam), other musicians in the camp whom they had known before the war, to entertain their fellow refugees. After a Canadian relief agency donated two beat up electric guitars, a single microphone and a meager sound system, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars were born.

Now, the band tours worldwide and works with many well-known musicians and producers. They have also performed benefits for Amnesty International and the World Food Program, among others.

Like many people who have experienced war and exile–including many of my clients–it seems that the band members’ desire to carry on with their lives and work to improve the world has not been dimmed:

The senseless deaths and illnesses of friends and family, including some of the band’s original members, and the slimming hope for great change in their country as a result of peace, has only strengthened the resolve of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars to do what they can to turn their country around. Their weapon in this struggle is music, and their message, while offering critique and condemnation of wrongdoing, remains positive and hopeful. Optimism in the face of obstacles, and the eternal hope for a better future motivates their lives and music.

Given the world’s current refugee situation and all the problems in the U.S. asylum system, optimism is in short supply. But it’s needed now more than ever.

In most cases, to obtain asylum, an applicant must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or particular social group. But there are a couple of exceptions: “Humanitarian Asylum” and “Other Serious Harm.”

Humanitarian asylum allows an applicant to receive asylum if she “demonstrate[s] compelling reasons for being unwilling or unable to return to the country arising out of the severity of the past persecution.” 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(1)(iii)(A). In other words, we don’t send a person back to a country where she faced severe past persecution based on a protected ground, even if it would be safe for her to return to that country today. I had a case a few years ago that illustrates this type of relief–My client was a 10-year-old Tutsi girl in Rwanda in 1994. When the genocide began, she went with her mother and two siblings to hide in a church. The Interhamwe militia arrived and separated the people in the church into two groups: one group that would live and one that would die. The little girl fainted (mercifully) before she could see her mother and one sibling murdered. Years later, she was in the U.S. seeking asylum. For some reason, the Asylum Office referred her case to the Immigration Court and she hired me. We were able to get humanitarian asylum based on the severity of her past persecution. In a sense (the legal sense), this was an easy case. Humanitarian asylum is well-known and relatively common.

Kids, eating your vegetables is not "other serious harm."

A less well known form of relief is asylum based on other serious harm. To obtain asylum on this basis, an applicant who has suffered past persecution based on a protected ground must “establish[] that there is a reasonable possibility that he or she may suffer other serious harm upon removal to that country.” 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(1)(iii)(B). Put another way, where an asylum applicant suffered past persecution based on a protected ground, but he no longer has a well-founded fear of future persecution based on that ground, he can still obtain asylum if he demonstrates that he could suffer “other serious harm” in his country. “Other serious harm” does not have to be based on a protected ground, and it does not have to be related to the original persecution.

I had a case recently where this would have been an appropriate form of relief, had I known about it (why is it that I always learn these types of things after the fact?). My case involved a guard who worked for the Special Court for Sierra Leone–the court that tried war criminals from the time of the civil war. During the civil war, my client was persecuted based on his political party affiliation. In 1991, rebels killed his parents in order to retaliate against him for his political activity. My client was working for the Special Court more recently, and he was assigned to protect an important witness. Former rebels who did not want the witness to testify asked my client to murder the witness in exchange for money. He refused, and reported the incident to his superiors. After his refusal, the former rebels repeatedly threatened to kill him, they broke into his house and left a warning note, and finally they invaded his house to kill him. He ran from the house and fled the country.

My client satisfied the first prong for “other serious harm” relief–He was persecuted on account of his political opinion during the time of the civil war. He also satisfied the second prong–He was facing harm or death because he failed to comply with the demands of the former rebels to murder the witness. Unfortunately, at the time, I did not know about relief based on “other serious harm.”

Luckily for my client (and me), the DHS attorney felt that my client qualified for humanitarian asylum based on the severity of the past persecution, and so asylum was granted. However, the more appropriate form of relief was asylum based on “other serious harm.” I learned about this avenue of relief at the First Annual USCIS Ombudsman’s Conference, which took place about a week after my case. Aside from the bad timing, it was a great conference. Anyway, now that I know, I thought I would share some information about “other serious harm,” as it might be helpful to others in their cases.

Refugees Come to America–To Sing!

The Forgotten Path to Asylum: “Other Serious Harm”