The World from PRX

Asylum

Stories about the complex process of seeking asylum — and how that process is changing. Want to see for yourself? Make your way through the US asylum process with this interactive tool.

The CAFEMIN shelter in Mexico City is designed for 80 people, but it's currently hosting 500, with most of them sleeping on gym mats in the shelter's basketball court.
Immigration
Shelters for migrants in Mexico City overwhelmed as US changes its asylum rules
man at podium
Immigration
Afghans who fled to the US hope that Congress will fix their status 
Migrants cross the Rio Grande river towards the US in Eagle Pass, Texas
Migration
More migrants are attempting to cross into the US via the perilous Rio Grande
Asylum-seekers pray as part of a vigil following the court order mandating Title 42 remain in place on May 23, 2022.
Immigration
‘That news hit us like a bomb’: Asylum-seekers still in limbo after ruling to keep Title 42 intact
A man sweeps the floor in a church being turned into an apartment
Refugees
Refugees in Maine find it harder to afford housing as remote workers move in
Figures of a 7-year-old migrant girl walking with a woman and unidentified man silhouetted at night
Borders
Many asylum-seekers are returned at the US-Mexico border under Title 42. Advocates call it a ‘sham.’
A Honduran migrant woman carries a child on her back as they travel with other migrants by foot along a highway in Chiquimula, Guatemala,  Jan. 16, 2021, in hopes of reaching the U.S. border
How the Biden administration might undo some of Trump’s immigration policies
Two children sleep beneath gray blankets on the road near the Moria refugee camp on the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 10, 2020.
Migration
Thousands of refugees sleep in streets after fire destroys Greece’s Moria camp
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer announces to a group of asylum-seekers that they will be crossing illegally into Canada as they wait in line to to enter at the US-Canada border in Champlain, New York, August 7, 2017.
Borders
Canada judge rules sending asylum-seekers back to the US violates their rights
The Supreme Court building
Immigration
SCOTUS rules some rejected asylum-seekers can’t challenge decisions
Camila Díaz, 29, had unsuccessfully sought asylum in the US before she was fatally beaten in El Salvador in January 2019. 
Immigration
ICE deported a trans asylum-seeker. She was killed in El Salvador.
Mexican Officials Attempt to Stop Migrant Caravan, Indicative of U.S. Pressure on Mexico 2020-01-22
Full Episode
A large group of people are show standing outside of a white-walled building with the words "Instituto Nacional de Migracion" written on it.
Migration
Migrants describe overcrowded Mexican detention centers as Trump ratchets up pressure
Assange
Justice
A decade of WikiLeaks’ Assange, from allegations to arrest
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun is shown in a still grainy still image taken from a video speaking into earbuds.
Thailand, UNHCR confer on Saudi teen barricaded in Thai hotel
A small girl in a t-shirt with bare legs and feet cries she and her mother run up a dirt hill.
Immigration
Mexico calls for ‘full investigation’ of US tear gas used at border
Man sits behind large stack of papers, brown envelopes
Justice
When the government wrongly deports people, coming back to the US is almost impossible
Letter from US government in focus, being held up by a man who is out of focus behind it
Immigration
The government says Border Patrol agents in the Southwest speak Spanish — but many migrants speak Indigenous languages
Newly arriving Jewish refugee from the Nazi Holocaust wave from the ship "S.S. Awarea" as it pulls into Haifa port on April 6, 1948.
Immigration
Deporting asylum-seekers without giving them a chance to make their case would violate US and international laws
Girl in room with Mother's Day balloon in front of her face
Immigration
This mother, already deported, doesn’t know if she’ll ever be reunited with the daughter taken from her at the US border
A mother is seen holding her child.
Immigration
Trump’s new order on families at the border raises even more questions about what happens next for child migrants
President Trump Holds Historic Meeting with Kim Jong-un
Full Episode
Migrants reaching border
Immigration
Will the US deny asylum to domestic violence survivors?
A child traveling with a caravan of migrants from Central America sleeps
Immigration
At the US-Mexico border, migrants face an uncertain wait
“I Was Just Looking for Safety”: Applying for Asylum in America
Full Episode
School project of child's hand prints with poem, "When I'm grown and far away, these little hands with you will stay"
Justice
As Trump ends Obama-era protections for Salvadorans, a family in Minnesota has few good options to stay together
Man in crowd hugging child, photo from above
Justice
Why a recent Supreme Court decision on bonds is a ‘red flag’ for immigrants in detention
Blurry image of woman in pink hodded sweatshirt standing in front of window, with reflection of trees
Conflict
With smuggling costs skyrocketing, parents balance risk and debt for their children’s future
Woman putting bills in public bus machine, with windshield behind her
Justice
She escaped violence in El Salvador, but there’s little time or resources to heal while seeking asylum in the US
A woman holding a baby waits in line, above an open helping hand is extended.
Conflict
Make your way through the maze of seeking asylum in the US
DHS bus
Conflict
The complicated reasons why some people overstay their US visas
Asylum-seekers look through a fence at the Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea March 21, 2014. It is scheduled to close October 31, 2017. Eoin Blackwell/AAP/via Reuters/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - FACES PIXELLATED AT SOURCE. THIS PICTURE
Global Politics
For the asylum-seekers in one of Australia’s controversial offshore detention camps, there’s good news and bad news
A mother and her young daughter are watched by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers as they prepare to cross the US-Canada border from New York into Quebec earlier this month. Like thousands of others fleeing the US for Canada, the woman told off
Justice
Immigrants fearing Trump are heading to Canada in droves. But will they be able to stay?
Central Americans
Justice
Why some people seeking asylum in the US are afraid of going to court
Family of six sitting closely together on a sofa
Global Politics
The courts called him a terrorist, but one judge and several politicians want him to be able to stay in the US
family sitting on steps in front of building
Conflict
Why 80 asylum-seekers are marching to the US southern border, even though they’ll probably be turned away
students
Justice
US law students, driven by their own family stories, are helping asylum-seekers
A congregation at the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church and Community in Berlin.
Conflict
This evangelical church in Berlin is helping Iranians looking for asylum
President Donald Trump attends the National Prayer Breakfast event in Washington, DC, Feb. 2, 2017.
Justice
A guide to the Geneva Convention for beginners, dummies and newly elected world leaders
Front of building with sign for Prairieland Detention Center
Economics
In a small Texas town, a new private detention center for transgender migrants brings jobs — and concerns
Brkitay Gebru with her sons, Tariki, 4, and Natanael, 3, in the courtyard of their building where immigrants from Eritrea and other countries rent rooms in Tel Aviv.
Economics
A program that pays African migrants to leave Israel is breaking up families
close up of three people holding hands
Justice
A migrant from El Salvador gets her chance in immigration court
Tijuana
Economics
Why Haitians are stranded in Mexico
Border
Justice
A day in the life of immigration limbo
A girl walks past a map illustrating part of Europe, at a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border in Greece.
Conflict
By the numbers: Seeking asylum in Greece
Dana Maghdeed Aziz holds up the identification issued to him by the Germany government.
Conflict
Some Iraqi refugees who made it to Europe are choosing to return home
A Syrian refugee kisses his son as he walks through a rainstorm towards Greece's border with Macedonia.
Conflict
‘They will reach your doorsteps and they will demand their rights as human beings’
Asylum 16:9
Justice
For some women fleeing violence, safety means changing US law ‘stuck in the past’
Constantino Morales 1
Conflict
Despite deaths and drugs, asylum in the US remains a dream for most Mexicans
The data page of a United States passport.
Conflict
This American’s passport ended up in the hands of smugglers in Turkey
22-year-old Attas is currently living with 70 other homeless migrants in an abandoned office building in Amsterdam. The Dutch govenment this week rejected a UN call to assist illegal homeless migrants by providing food and shelter.
Global Politics
Homeless migrants in Amsterdam are stuck in a cold limbo
Gay rights activists march with a banner during a May Day rally in St. Petersburg. The banner reads, "Love is stronger than war!"
Global Politics
A gay Russian teen has been outed as he seeks asylum in the US
Maria_Sunset
Justice
Central American kids wait in life-or-death limbo to see if they can stay in the US
A Guatemalan woman recently deported from the U.S. makes a phone call at a migrant shelter in Guatemala City, In addition to avoiding gang and drug-related violence, Central Americans are also fleeing to the US for economic reasons.
Conflict & Justice
For Central Americans, fear is increasingly the reason for entering the US
Gay rights activists in Moscow held a banner that reads "Homophobia is the shame of Russia," as they protested in front of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee building in Moscow on September 25, 2013.
Conflict & Justice
A gay Russian gets asylum and a new life in the US
Global Politics
Don’t expect Brazil to offer Snowden asylum
Fouad Faris, 19, sits at his computer in Shrewsbury, MA, video chatting with his sister, Rama, who is in Turkey. Faris wears a neck brace because he is recovering from a biking accident.
Conflict & Justice
A teen who escaped Syria waits for a future in the US
German musician Heinz Ratz leading his refugee band on a recent night in Giessen Germany. The tour is designed to draw attention to the plight of tens of thousands asylum seekers in Germany, many of whom wait decades in detention for their cases to be de
Arts, Culture & Media
World music all-stars head out on tour, with a reprieve from German detention centers