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CASE HIGHLIGHT: ASYLUM GRANTED TO HIV+ SURVIVOR OF RWANDAN GENOCIDE
Ms. M is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and raising three young girls. She is HIV-positive.
Ms. M. came to HIV Law Project seeking assistance with her claim for asylum in the United States for herself and her young daughters. Her path from Kigali to New York City covers a span of almost two decades of living in fear for her life and is mired by ethnic and political violence, war, genocide, and unfathomable personal loss.
Ms. M’s husband, mother, and brother were murdered during the genocide. Her infant son died a few months later and is believed to have been poisoned by a disturbed caretaker. Living in Kigali became unbearable for Ms. M, whose mother was Tutsi and whose father was a Congolese of Hutu ethnicity. Ms. M. made arrangements for her two surviving sons to live under the care of a farmer and in 1999 left Rwanda with her new husband, a United Nations employee. For several years Ms. M. lived in a constant state of flight and relocation, living primarily in war torn nations like Haiti and Eritrea. Ms. M and her husband, who had two children during their marriage, came to the United States in 2002. It was at this time that Ms. M was diagnosed as HIV-Positive.
Being HIV-positive and of mixed ethnicity, returning to Rwanda would have been equivalent to a death sentence. HIV Law Project aggressively represented Ms. M in her claim for asylum and, after intensive litigation, prevailed. Now that Ms. M and her daughters have been granted asylum in the United States, she can live safely with her children, obtain the medical treatment she needs, and begin to rebuild her life. Ms. M is now working on reuniting with her sons.
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