Housing was an afterthought when Oksana Bezkorovaina arrived in Poland from bordering Ukraine with her daughter Masha and sister, Maryna. The trio had been through the wringer trying to make it out of their home in Kharkiv, where they would sleep in the basement with their shoes on — ready to flee at any moment.
In 1985, Ken Burns interviewed two 10-year-old boys on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach for a film about the Statue of Liberty. Nearly 40 years later, those two boys, Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman are speaking out in support of refugee resettlement in a new Ken Burns/New York Times short.
As a political and LGBTQ activist, Magdiel Galeano Gómez had to flee Nicaragua after multiple attempts on his life. With HIAS Costa Rica by his side, he and his husband were able to build new lives – and a thriving ecologically-friendly business.
When Daniela arrived as a refugee in Ecuador with her husband and young son, they faced difficulty and uncertainty. Thanks to HIAS, Airbnb, and local hosts who open up their homes to refugees, she now feels supported and embraced by her local community.
“I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and started calling colleagues,” Alexander (Sasha) Galkin recalled of the first night of the war. As the director of Right to Protection (R2P) — HIAS’ long time partner in Ukraine — he had urgent priorities: ensuring the safety of R2P staff, and working out how the organization could pivot to the new emergency.
As refugee advocates anxiously wait for the Supreme Court to determine the fate of the “Remain in Mexico” program, a spate of recent decisions have harmful implications for migrants, including those seeking asylum in the U.S.