Bøger af Human Rights First Staff

In March 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took over responsibility for asylum and immigration matters when the former INS was abolished. With this transfer, DHS was entrusted with the duty to ensure that the United States lives up to its commitments to those who seek asylum from persecution. These commitments stem from both U.S. law and international treaties with which the United States has pledged to abide. Yet, those who seek asylum - a form of protection extended to victims of political, religious and other forms of persecution - have been swept up in a wave of increased immigration detention, which has left many asylum seekers in jails and jail-like facilities for months or even years.

Detained and Denied in Afghanistan: How to Make U.S. Detention Comply with the Law examines the situation of more than 1700 detainees held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan - more than triple the number held by the Bush administration and around 10 times the number at Guantanamo Bay. It is based on observation of hearings given to detainees by the U.S. military in Sept. 2010 and Feb. 2011; an Afghan trial supported by the U.S. military; and interviews with former detainees, all of whom had been released from U.S. custody within the previous year. This report follows up on Human Rights First's earlier report, issued two years ago, on US and Afghan detention practices in Afghanistan. The report finds that although improvements have been made, the current detention system is still plagued by failures to comply with international law. HRF's recommendations for improvement include providing detainees with legal representation, and reducing the reliance on secret evidence at their hearings. Human Rights First also recommends that as the U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan, it maintain its commitment to civilian assistance for development of the rule of law.

As "Living in Limbo" attests, thousands of Iraqi refugees - including Iraqi Christians and other religious and sexual minorities, as well as U.S.-affilitated Iraqis - are living in limbo in the Middle East region, struggling to survive outside of Iraq without the right to work, put their children in school, or get heath care. As violence and instability persist in Iraq, resettlement to other countries - including the United States - remains the only effective path for many of these refugees, including those who have faced persecution in Iraq because of their work with the United States. While the United States has stepped up its response to Iraqi displacement over the last few years serious reforms are needed in the U.S. resettlement program to remove unnecessary processing delays which now leave many Iraqi refugees and U.S.-affiliated Iraqis vulnerable and stranded in difficult and sometimes dangerous situations.

Over the past eight years, thousands of legitimate refugees who pose no threat to the United States have had their applications for asylum, permanent residence, and family reunification denied or delayed due to overly broad provisions of U.S. immigration law that were intended to protect the United States against terrorism. Changes to the immigration laws enacted as part of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005 greatly expanded the immigration law's provisions relating to "terrorism." At the same time, the federal agencies charged with enforcing these laws began to interpret both the old and the new provisions in increasingly expansive ways. This report documents how these changes in law and in legal interpretation are affecting refugees ranging from peaceful advocates for democracy to former child soldiers. The report offers recommendations to Congress and to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State.