About
Asylum Access is a refugee rights organization that empowers forcibly displaced people through legal aid and policy reform, advocating for their rights to rebuild their lives and contribute to their communities. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Oakland, California, it has grown into a global leader in advancing refugee rights, with national organizations in Malaysia, Mexico, and Thailand and a global advocacy program.
Mission
Asylum Access works toward freedom, dignity, and justice for forcibly displaced people. The organization stands alongside refugee communities to uphold rights, shift power, and transform the systems that harm them, pursuing a world where refugees can live safely, move freely, work, attend school, and rebuild their lives wherever they find themselves.
What they do
- Legal empowerment: Asylum Access lawyers and community advocates support refugees as they assert and protect their human rights, helping refugee communities understand, use, and shape the laws that affect them.
- Policy change: advocacy to enshrine refugees' rights in national law in the countries where it works, addressing barriers such as prohibitions on work, lack of school access, and risk of detention and refoulement.
- Global advocacy: pressing international institutions to share power, fund refugee-led organizations, and build responses shaped by lived experience, including through the Resourcing Refugee Leadership Initiative (RRLI), which Asylum Access co-founded and hosted.
History
Asylum Access was formed in 2005 in San Francisco by a group of human rights lawyers, gathered in the apartment of founder Emily Arnold-Fernandez, who were frustrated with the existing global asylum system. In 2007 it established its first national organizations in Ecuador and Thailand, and in 2009 it expanded to Tanzania. Between 2014 and 2015 it expanded to Malaysia and Mexico, reaching five countries, and contributed to policy wins including Mexico's 2020 ban on migrant child detention and Thailand's 2019 implementation of its first asylum process. In 2018, Asylum Access Tanzania became the independent organization Dignity Kwanza and Asylum Access Ecuador transitioned its cases to local actors. In 2019 the organization committed to centering refugee leadership, and in 2024 it began transitioning to a shared leadership structure.
Scale and impact
According to its website, Asylum Access has supported 157,079 refugee clients through legal empowerment services and positively affected 1,087,223 refugees through its policy change efforts, drawing on 20 years of supporting forcibly displaced communities.
Financials
According to IRS Form 990 data on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 20-3642040), Asylum Access reported total revenue of 4,702,272 dollars, total expenses of 9,342,055 dollars, and total assets of 11,834,319 dollars for the fiscal year ending June 2024, with contributions and grants of 4,383,453 dollars.
Governance
Asylum Access is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (tax ID 20-3642040) based at 2648 International Blvd, Suite 301 #17, Oakland, California. Since 2024 it has been moving from a traditional top-down leadership model to a shared leadership structure grounded in equity, collaboration, and collective accountability.
