Working as a young lawyer in Egypt, Emily Arnold-Fernández had witnessed firsthand how disconnected the global response to the refugee community was from the actual realities of the refugee experience. In 2005, back home in San Francisco, she brought together a passionate group of human rights lawyers who shared her frustrations. With decades of combined experience in refugee and international law, they had all seen how forcibly displaced people who flee human rights violations in their home countries almost always experience further violations in the countries that should provide safe haven. In Arnold-Fernández’s small apartment, working on desks improvised from coffee tables and TV trays, they created Asylum Access, becoming one of the first organizations in the world to focus on the human rights needs of refugees beyond just humanitarian aid.
Nearly a decade later in 2014, Malaysian lawyer Deepa Nambiar was an integral part of the organization’s expansion, launching Asylum Access’s Malaysian national office. Now working at the global level as the Director of Partnerships, Nambiar reaffirms the importance of their mission:
“Most refugees can't return to their home countries, so they end up being in host countries for years, if not decades. But the way the refugee response community responds to them is, let's put them in camps, let's just give food, shelter, water, emergency humanitarian aid instead of how do we fix the fundamental problems in the system. How can we ensure that refugees who are living in host countries have the rights and the laws to protect them, that allow them to work, to go to school, to rebuild their lives while waiting for potential resettlement, instead of just being stuck in camps forever?”
Twenty years since its inception, Asylum Access continues to provide legal advice, help refugees navigate complex legal processes to get documentation, challenge unlawful violations or exploitation, and do advocacy at the global level to make sure that institutions of power prioritize refugee human rights. But their work requires ongoing evolution and adaptation, and over the past few years they’ve emphasized more meaningful refugee participation: How can refugees themselves be part of leadership and be involved in decision making at all levels? They realized that one-off advice and mentorship wasn’t the most impactful way to facilitate change, so they began building local partnerships that supported communities in setting up their own refugee rights NGOs, working closely with them to develop the necessary tools and assist with fundraising. Says Nambiar:
“We believe in shifting power and changing the system and not just putting bandaids on the problem. But we recognized that the way we approached partnership came from quite a colonial mindset like, ‘We know better, let us show you how to set up this organization in a country that we've never been to.’ Of course it came from a place of wanting to help and wanting to support but, in hindsight, we didn't build partnerships that really centered the knowledge and experiences and leadership of our local partners.”
Their partnership strategy has changed significantly as a result, so that now, says Nambiar,
“We are using our privilege and access to resources, to global spaces, to donors, to conversations, and saying ‘We've got information, we've got tools. What is going to be most useful for you?’ And we build partnerships around that. And ultimately our goal is to just slink away and let our partners lead the work.”
