Asylum Research

Resources for Asylum Applicants from Pakistan

• NEW! P.001 (Social Group/Religion-Based Asylum)
  “Irshad”
  Executive Office for Immigration Review
  Office of the Immigration Judge
  Chicago, IL
  Memorandum of Law and Facts
  Applications: Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and/or Withholding under the Convention Against Torture
  December 9, 2003
  ASYLUM GRANTED
• Note:  Respondent was granted asylum based on a well-founded fear of persecution for membership in a Sunni social and religious group.  Respondent's family, the Sunni Deoband C Family of J Town in the Punjab region of Pakistan, was subject to violent persecution at the hands of a rival Shia family for their open religious practices and beliefs.   Respondent himself was a target for continuous harassment and abuse based on the imputed Sunni Deoband religious beliefs of his family.  The Judge determined that the violence did, in fact, amount to persecution.   Given the persecutors' powerful connections in the region, the Judge determined that the Pakistani government and police are either unable or unwilling to control these private actors and therefore to prevent respondent's persecution if he returned.