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Stories
Amchok Thubten Gyamtso -
Tibet
Jean Pierre Kamwa -
Cameroon
Mina Burhani* - Afghanistan
Mekabou Fofana - Liberia
Makani Jalloh - Sierra
Leone
Hussein Amani*
*For confidentiality reasons,
these clients’ real names are
not being used.
Asylum Refugees
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Refugees Tell
Their Stories
 “I
became a free man in America thanks to the very kind assistance
of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and their colleagues at
Steptoe & Johnson. It is exceedingly reassuring to know that
people like me who face persecution in our countries have friends
like these in America who would unreservedly help us find a legal
and safe haven in America.” - Hussein
Amani,* asylee
Amchok Thubten
Gyamtso - Tibet
In
Tibet, my family opposed the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and for
that we suffered harsh persecution for many years. My father had
been a Tibetan government minister and was executed for opposing
Chinese rule and resisting the Chinese invasion. My family was labeled
as enemies of the communist regime, and I was expelled from school
when I was ten years old. I entered a Buddhist monastery when I
was fourteen years old. As a Buddhist monk, I distributed literature
about the Dalai Lama, and peacefully advocated for Tibetan independence.
I had hoped to bring about more freedom for Tibetans, who like myself,
were denied the same rights as Chinese citizens. Because of my activities,
the Chinese government arrested me in prison for three years and
four months. During those years, they tortured me.
Fortunately, I managed to escape to this country, and arrived in
November 1995, before there was such a thing as expedited removal
and the filing deadline. With the help of the Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights and volunteer lawyers at Hunton & Williams,
I won asylum in 1997.
Last year, lawyers at the firm of Latham & Watkins helped me
to found Song Tsen Tibetan Community Outreach, a Tibetan community
organization based in New York City. As President of Song Tsen,
I work to inform the Tibetan refugee community about the 1996 immigration
law’s asylum filing deadline. In a survey that Song Tsen conducted
with 600 Tibetan refugees in New York City, we found that more than
half did not know about the one year filing deadline. I have worked
with many Tibetan refugees who missed the filing deadline or did
not know that it exists. Through my work, I have also heard of Tibetan
refugees who have come to the United States to seek asylum but were
turned away after being stopped by the INS at J.F.K. International
Airport.
I also visited a Tibetan refugee who was detained for months at
the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is a
farmer who had peacefully protested when the Chinese removed the
Dalai Lama’s picture from a local monastery, and fled to the
United States fearing arrest and torture.
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