The Center for Victims of Torture supports torture survivors, and others who have survived organized violence, in multiple ways. This support includes: direct rehabilitative care and case management; resilience and skills training for communities and organizations; and advocacy to improve and expand opportunities for survivors to find safety, heal, purse justice and thrive.

People have the right to seek asylum. CVT’s work in the U.S. includes extending direct psychosocial care to survivors and helping clients get the support they need. We know there are more than one million refugees in the U.S. who have survived torture and need this care. According to our research, as many as 44% of refugees and asylum seekers living in the U.S. have survived torture.

Definitions: Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Many people around the world face grave danger, even torture, in their countries and are forced to flee their homes. Once they do so, they begin a complex, often dangerous, journey to find safety.

Within the United States, the term “refugee” refers to people who have been determined to be refugees while located outside the U.S., and who are then formally resettled to the U.S. through the United States Refugee Admissions Program after rigorous screening and background checks. The term “asylum-seeker” is used to refer to those already inside the U.S., or arriving at the border, who are seeking a determination – through the U.S. immigration system – that they meet the definition of a refugee (and if granted asylum, would then be considered an asylee). Read the “Basics of Asylum” from Human Rights First here.

Why People Flee Their Homes

Violent conflict plays an enormous role in causing people to become refugees. In fact, as of June 2024, UNHCR reports that 65% of the refugees in its mandate come from just four countries: Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine and Afghanistan. Many countries host large numbers of refugees, in many cases millions of people. Iran, Turkey, Colombia, Germany and Uganda hosted the largest numbers of refugees in 2024.

There are many other reasons that people are forcibly displaced as well, including repressive regimes that use torture and persecution in an attempt to control populations. CVT’s clients often tell us that they did not want to leave their homes, yet they felt they had no choice in order to survive.

Many people flee with only the possessions they can carry and then have to travel through more than one country to get to a safer location. These circumstances make them vulnerable to a host of dangers, including human trafficking, sexual assault, hunger and many more.

The Right to Seek Asylum

The right to seek asylum is enshrined in international law.

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was issued by the United Nations General Assembly to recognize the “inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.” Among the specific rights listed in the UDHR’s 30 articles were that no one “shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Article 5). In addition, Article 14 states, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” The right to asylum was enshrined again in the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

The United States then passed its own federal law, the Refugee Act of 1980, which is meant to ensure that individuals who seek asylum from within the U.S. or at its border are not sent back to places where they face persecution.

At CVT, these two universal human rights are closely linked. We all have the right to a life without torture, yet it is perpetrated in many global locations. Where torture, armed conflict and persecution exist, people have the right to seek asylum. After torture, finding safety and a path to stability is critical for healing; thousands of survivors must leave their homes to find this kind of safety.