Not far from campus there are people who are fighting to see their family members again and trying to prove to the |
American government that they are legally married to their spouse without speaking any English. Students at the Elon ^ (
School of Law have been volunteering with a clinic in Greensboro to provide a voice for these refugees.
It has been years since they have seen
each other, but they aren't strangers. They
are a family: a wife, a husband, a son or a
daughter. They have been separated because
of a conflict, a war or a poltiical disagreement.
After uncertainty about when and if they
would ever be able to reunite again, they are
hugging and planning their future together.
Reunions like these happen because of
students and professors who volunteer at Elon
Law's Humanitarian Immigration Law Clinic.
A local family reunites
Recently, Victor and Louis Messan, a
Goldsboro couple, were reunited with their six
children after being separated for four years.
The Messans lived in the Togo, a country in
West Africa, before civil unrest started. While
the parents worked with the immigration
clinic, the children stayed in Benin, a
neighboring country, .ntil their visas were |
approved. ^
Andrew Haile, the Humanitarian Law
Clinic's immigration counselor, has worked on ;
the case for the last two years. |
"Victor was the petitioner in this situation ^
and he was a political refugee that had been |
prosecuted by the Togolese government," Haile
said.