I Was a Stranger, and You Welcomed Me

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Harvard Human Rights Journal

Version

pre-publication

Journal Abbreviation

Harv. Hum. Rts. J.

Abstract

This article is about the ethical and emotional challenges in human rights lawyering for refugees. I volunteered to represent refugees stranded in a desolate tent camp on an otherwise beautiful Greek island. The refugees were not just my clients, they were my colleagues. My Arabic interpreter was an asylum seeker whose family was killed in a brutal civil war. My French interpreter for African clients was an artist seeking refuge. Terrorists firebombed his studio and threatened to kill him. My story is really their story, and the story of those who braved dictators, terrorists, war criminals, border guards, and flimsy rafts to make it to Greece and a chance for freedom. It is a story full of tragedy and triumph. Our refugee friends made us laugh, cry, and think—one of my refugee interpreters challenged me about focusing on the brutality endured by refugees in their asylum appeals. It is a story about war and torture and rape. It is a story about artists and linguists and journalists and cooks, all stuck in a hellhole of a refugee camp. It is a story of refugees making art and teaching in language classes, it is a story of how we took moonlit walks on beaches, it is a story about volunteers who traveled the world to help, it is a story of Greek moms with disabled kids who lent a hand.

It is a story about lawyers and refugees working together for freedom and sanctuary. It is a story about being a lawyer and being a refugee in a world that is wicked one minute and wonderful the next. It is a story about whether we won. And in all this, it is humanity's story.

Publication Date

4-29-2022

Comments

This article was published as a special online feature and has unnumbered pages.

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