Unaccompanied minor seeks asylum
Donation protected
*** UPDATE: THANK YOU to everyone who has donated and helped us reach our target!!!
For donors: Money will be withdrawn into my Canadian account and then 100% of the funds will transferred immediately to Jose Campos, Ibrahima's lawyer, who will then use the money to make Ibrahima's bond payment. Any surplus will go to Al Otro Lado's program in support of unaccompanied minors. Al Otro Lado is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in California. Websites for all involved organizations listed below.
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I am raising money for Ibrahima Oumar Sy, a kind, soft-spoken black Muslim boy from Mauritania who escaped slavery and seeks asylum in the United States. His immigration judge has ordered a bond payment of $5000 USD by 18 February 2020 to secure his release from an adult detention facility, where he is being held in violation of the Flores Settlement Agreement.
If you are against the Trump administration's asylum policies that take vulnerable children who present alone at the US-Mexico border and put them in prison, this is a direct, meaningful, and powerful way to help a young person who has been stuck in this inhumane system.
I'm an Osgoode Hall Law School student and former UN staff member from Toronto who spent last summer in Tijuana with Al Otro Lado, an incredible emergency legal services clinic that provides direct assistance to asylum seekers and refugees seeking to cross into the United States. It was at Al Otro Lado that I met Ibrahima and his friends. This group of 16 and 17 year old boys had escaped a life of slavery in Mauritania. He himself starting working on a rural farm at age 7. His body is scarred from beatings he received in the course of his work. Nevertheless, Ibrahima and his friends made the brave decision to seek a life where they could enjoy basic rights. According to his testimony in our interviews, Ibrahima's grandmother sold an ox so that he could afford to flee Mauritania. He flew to South America and traveled through the Darien Gap - one of the world's most dangerous crossing points that asylum seekers pass through on their way to the United States. He and his friends arrived in Tijuana dehydrated, exhausted, but hopeful that they could cross into the United States.
Last summer, many outlets reported on the inhumane conditions in immigration detention on the border, especially for children. Asylum seekers like Ibrahima are first held by the American authorities in the hielera, or ice box, upon arrival in the United States. It's an underground detention centre where refugees are kept in cold temperatures. The lights are on at all times, and people's belongings are confiscated. The day we prepared Ibrahima and his friends to enter Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody, we dressed them in warm sweaters, socks, and new shoes provided to him by a Tijuana youth shelter. We wrote our lawyer's phone numbers on their arms in black marker, since we knew all of their belongings would be confiscated.
Though he followed all legal steps to enter the United States, Ibrahima then went on to be held in an adult detention facility - we said goodbye to him this in June. He has been in this jail ever since.
Ibrahima has the chance to be released on bond. Your contribution could change the course of this boy's life. We have until 18 February to raise these funds. I'm urging you to offer your financial support.
Ibrahima is represented by Jose Campos: https://www.jccamposlaw.com/
More information on Al Otro Lado is available here:
https://alotrolado.org/
A Guardian report on slavery in Mauritania:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/08/the-unspeakable-truth-about-slavery-in-mauritania
More information on asylum and detainment of unaccompanied minors on the US border:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/us/immigrant-detainee-letters.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html
Photos and testimony tell us more about hielera (ice box) detention conditions: https://www.thecut.com/2018/12/what-are-las-hieleras-iceboxes-used-by-cbp-at-the-border.html
For donors: Money will be withdrawn into my Canadian account and then 100% of the funds will transferred immediately to Jose Campos, Ibrahima's lawyer, who will then use the money to make Ibrahima's bond payment. Any surplus will go to Al Otro Lado's program in support of unaccompanied minors. Al Otro Lado is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in California. Websites for all involved organizations listed below.
----
I am raising money for Ibrahima Oumar Sy, a kind, soft-spoken black Muslim boy from Mauritania who escaped slavery and seeks asylum in the United States. His immigration judge has ordered a bond payment of $5000 USD by 18 February 2020 to secure his release from an adult detention facility, where he is being held in violation of the Flores Settlement Agreement.
If you are against the Trump administration's asylum policies that take vulnerable children who present alone at the US-Mexico border and put them in prison, this is a direct, meaningful, and powerful way to help a young person who has been stuck in this inhumane system.
I'm an Osgoode Hall Law School student and former UN staff member from Toronto who spent last summer in Tijuana with Al Otro Lado, an incredible emergency legal services clinic that provides direct assistance to asylum seekers and refugees seeking to cross into the United States. It was at Al Otro Lado that I met Ibrahima and his friends. This group of 16 and 17 year old boys had escaped a life of slavery in Mauritania. He himself starting working on a rural farm at age 7. His body is scarred from beatings he received in the course of his work. Nevertheless, Ibrahima and his friends made the brave decision to seek a life where they could enjoy basic rights. According to his testimony in our interviews, Ibrahima's grandmother sold an ox so that he could afford to flee Mauritania. He flew to South America and traveled through the Darien Gap - one of the world's most dangerous crossing points that asylum seekers pass through on their way to the United States. He and his friends arrived in Tijuana dehydrated, exhausted, but hopeful that they could cross into the United States.
Last summer, many outlets reported on the inhumane conditions in immigration detention on the border, especially for children. Asylum seekers like Ibrahima are first held by the American authorities in the hielera, or ice box, upon arrival in the United States. It's an underground detention centre where refugees are kept in cold temperatures. The lights are on at all times, and people's belongings are confiscated. The day we prepared Ibrahima and his friends to enter Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody, we dressed them in warm sweaters, socks, and new shoes provided to him by a Tijuana youth shelter. We wrote our lawyer's phone numbers on their arms in black marker, since we knew all of their belongings would be confiscated.
Though he followed all legal steps to enter the United States, Ibrahima then went on to be held in an adult detention facility - we said goodbye to him this in June. He has been in this jail ever since.
Ibrahima has the chance to be released on bond. Your contribution could change the course of this boy's life. We have until 18 February to raise these funds. I'm urging you to offer your financial support.
Ibrahima is represented by Jose Campos: https://www.jccamposlaw.com/
More information on Al Otro Lado is available here:
https://alotrolado.org/
A Guardian report on slavery in Mauritania:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/08/the-unspeakable-truth-about-slavery-in-mauritania
More information on asylum and detainment of unaccompanied minors on the US border:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/us/immigrant-detainee-letters.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/migrant-children-border-soap.html
Photos and testimony tell us more about hielera (ice box) detention conditions: https://www.thecut.com/2018/12/what-are-las-hieleras-iceboxes-used-by-cbp-at-the-border.html
Organizer
Jennah Khaled
Organizer
Toronto, ON
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