Asylos, a network of researchers assisting asylum seekers, was at a pivotal growth stage. We worked with them to explore how to strengthen their work gathering evidence for asylum seekers and advocating for refugee rights.
Asylum seekers in Europe are up against a dysfunctional system
The global refugee crisis is one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in history. Asylum lawyers in Europe deal with dysfunctional legal systems and have little support. Asylos is an network of volunteer researchers who assist lawyers in gathering evidence to help people fleeing violence and persecution claim their right to asylum.
In the face of an unprecedented surge of refugees, Asylos sought our help in June 2014 to identify ways to strengthen their community through new skills, tactics and relationships to connect researchers, lawyers, and managing staff.
What are the best ways to build strong ties within the community? How could Asylos best communicate their efforts to the public? What new skills and tactics would improve the research results? How best to protect sensitive information about asylum seekers? How to search for, and present evidence to lawyers so that it’s most useful to them? What are the best ways to empower autonomy in a decentralised network with a shared purpose?