More than 2000 health professionals across the United States are members of PHR’s Asylum Network, which helps asylum seekers by providing forensic medical and psychological evaluations to support their application for asylum. Join the Asylum Network today!
- Fill out the application form. You will receive a welcome email once your application has been processed.
- Attend an Asylum Training. PHR requires asylum volunteers to receive training before taking cases. View upcoming trainings here.
- Once you have attended a training, you’re officially an Asylum Network member! PHR will email you with potential cases; when you accept a case, the case attorney will contact you to schedule an evaluation of their client.
“When I meet others working with PHR, there is an instant understanding of beliefs and it is easy to network to find resources for those seeking asylum.”
– Internist, Louisiana
PHR Process for Matching Clinicians with Asylum Cases
- Joining the Network: Medical professionals sign up to be volunteer evaluators through PHR (or an affiliated PHR clinic).
- Asylum Training: All volunteers are required to attend training. Additional evaluation aids are available here.
- Volunteer Outreach: PHR emails local case options to volunteer evaluators regularly. Evaluators reply with their interest in a case.
- Case Placement: PHR confirms evaluator case placement, and provides the asylum seeker’s attorney with the evaluator’s contact information.
- Scheduling: The attorney contacts the volunteer evaluator to schedule an evaluation for their client.
- Evaluation: The evaluation occurs at a location convenient for the volunteer evaluator: the volunteer’s office or – if the client is detained – at the detention center.
- Affidavit (testimony possible): The volunteer evaluator writes up the evidence gathered in the form of an affidavit for use during the asylum trial. Oral testimony is sometimes requested.
- Asylum Case Outcome: The attorney submits an outcome report to PHR, and the outcome is then shared with the volunteer evaluator.
“While I am also haunted at times by the stories I hear, many of which I will never ever forget, the joy and empowerment that comes from a client’s asylum is worth it. At the conclusion of the hearing for my last client, the client, attorney and I were all in tears.”
– Counseling psychologist, California
