Student Advocacy
Students Taking Action for the Asylum Network
For over ten years, PHR's Asylum Network has provided thousands of torture survivors seeking refuge in the United States with pro bono forensic evaluations in support of their claim to asylum. A health professional's evaluation is often the only evidence an asylum seeker has to support his/her claim, and is an invaluable service to torture survivors seeking safe haven.
Currently, the Asylum Network is made up of approximately 400 health professionals throughout the country, but still more are needed. We are looking to expand each year so we can fill any unmet needs of torture survivors in need of forensic evaluations. In 2007 alone, volunteer medical and mental health doctors provided nearly 200 asylum seekers with evaluations. As PHR seeks to grow the size and capacity of the Asylum Network, we are on track to evaluate close to 300 asylum seekers in 2008.
What You Can Do:
Recruit for the Health Professional Network
PHR Student Members can help grow the Asylum Network by recruiting your professors, supervisors, attending physicians, and other licensed health professionals to perform forensic evaluations. (In order to perform a forensic medical or psychological evaluation, you need to be a fully licensed doctor.) Interns or residents who have not yet received your license can evaluate asylum seekers, but you will need a fully licensed doctor to sign off on the affidavit/evaluation report.
US Locations in Need of Health Professional Evaluators
About the map: The states and cities in this map are highlighted to indicate the degree of need for professional Medical and Psychological Evaluators in the area. Click on the states or on specific city markers to see where the Asylum Network is currently in most need of medical or psychological evaluators.
Color details:
- Red - very large degree of need
- Blue - large degree of need
- Green - medium degree of need
Resources to recruit health professionals in your area to the Network
Get Involved in Education & Advocacy
The Asylum Network also has a research and advocacy component on safeguarding the right to asylum in the United States. PHR will soon be ramping up its work to end the mandatory detention of arriving asylum seekers in the United States. We will also use our health professional expertise to make recommendations and lead changes in the deplorable existing system and delivery of health care in immigration detention centers, to which thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers are exposed every year.
Some Examples of ways to get involved:
- Organize a lecture or panel
- Host a lunchtime roundtable with a speaker or guided open discussion
- Host an Asylum-related film screening
- Include supplementary "health in asylum-seeking" programming for existing classes
- Other Ideas for Action
Resources for educating your community and to take action
Your involvement and connections can help us build the health professional network of evaluators and the power to advocate for a more humane asylum-seeking process. In the same way your work as a health professional will, the work we do through the Asylum Network can literally save a life.
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