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Can you help an LGBTIQ asylum seeker?
Are you willing to provide a safe and warm environment for someone seeking a better life with fair opportunities?
ORAM is looking for sponsors willing to accommodate and support LGBTIQ asylum seekers arriving in the U.S. while they pursue their asylum claims with the U.S. government. Sponsors are individuals and / or families who are willing to open their homes and hearts to assist an LGBTIQ asylum seeker to live in a safe and comfortable environment outside of a detainment facility.
This rewarding experience of contributing to better the lives LGBTIQ asylum seekers and provide them with the encouragement and support necessary to feel comfortable in a foreign land and receive the respect and dignity that individual deserves.
Your support can provide someone with freedom from discrimination, violence, and prejudice. Sponsors make some of the biggest and most important differences in the lives of LGBTIQ asylum seekers as they search for a safe and humane life.
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Background: What is the need?
Individuals that come to the U.S. seeking asylum are usually detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and placed in prisons or detention centers sometimes for an undisclosed period of time in remote areas while they wait for their asylum claims to go through the proper legal channels. LGBTIQ migrants can become victims to structural violence perpetrated by the determination process and are more at risk of being excluded from basic protections. LGBTIQ asylum seekers are placed with other detainees who often discriminate against them; they encounter a lack of understanding of their sexual orientations and identities by officials. Facilities lack the resources to support LGBTIQ individuals including much needed health care and mental health counselling, communication with family and nutritious food.
What do Sponsors do?
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Have a fixed address where the asylum seeker can demonstrate they reside and can receive mail.
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Be able to provide a comfortable place to sleep.
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Provide financial support while the asylum seeker awaits their work permit approval.
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Assist in gaining access to medical care, enrichment classes, and legal support.
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Financial means to provide necessities including food and transportation.
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Must be willing to submit paperwork to ICE for the release of an asylum seeker.
What are the benefits of Sponsorship?
The benefits of a Sponsorship within a community include forming new bonds with people from different backgrounds in a vital point in their lives, creating friendships through helping someone in need, minimizing hardships and aches for LGBTIQ individuals, and providing an environment of peace and kindness to someone who has faced prejudice and discrimination.
Who can be a Sponsor?
Sponsors are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents who are willing to submit paperwork to ICE to secure an asylum-seeker's release and then to receive an asylum-seeker in their home upon that release.
Sponsors help provide suitable housing, gain permissions from local authorities, are willing to allocate funds to the needs of asylum seekers, provide knowledge crucial to assisting vulnerable people integrate and settle. An important part of an eligible sponsor is the will to answer a call to action to support a LGBTIQ asylum seeker in their transition.
If you are interested in being a sponsor, email us at info@oramrefugee.org or fill in the form below.