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Interview Questions
Interview Questions
Introduction by
Asylum Officer
My
name is James Bond. Today you came here to the asylum office to answer
some questions concerning your asylum application. Before we start the
interview, I have some instructions for you and your interpreter. You
would be asked if the interpreter read to you the instructions/declarations
given to you when you arrived today at this office and if you understand
it. The asylum officer who would conduct the interview would repeat
the instructions and you and your interpreter would swear under oath
and sign the paper.
The instructions are:
That
you know you are here today for your asylum interview.
- That you would tell the only the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
- That all your documentary evidence
and written statements are true and accurate?
- That not telling the truth would
result in a criminal punishment leading up to 5 years of imprisonment
or fine.
Now
you would stand up, raise your right hand, and swear that you would
tell the truth. After this, both you and your interpreter would sign
on the paper.
The
interpreter would also be instructed to translate what the officer and
the applicant say word-by-word, without altering, modifying or adding
to what he hears in a direct speech.
Be
relaxed. You would not be informed of your result today; thus, there
is no need to be anxious. If your visa status has expired, you would
to this office after two weeks from today. If your visa has not expired,
we would be mailing the result to you at your address. (This is because
you can apply for asylum again as you would not be referred to an immigration
court because of your legal status. Additionally, when your visa is
valid, the interviewer would sometimes send you an “Intent to Deny”
letter giving you the chance to provide “rebuttal” or explanation with
additional evidence on some of the issues raised at the interview.)
The result is one of two things:
(a) you may be granted asylum and permitted to live and work in
the U.S. and bring your spouse and children; or, (b) your case may be
referred to an Immigration Judge (IJ) where you would have a second
chance to request asylum.
Before
we begin, please feel free to make corrections, additions or changes
on the information provided in your Application for Asylum (Form I-589)
and the Supplementary Affidavit.
Biographic
Information
What is your full name?
- Do you have a passport or ID bearing
your photograph? Can I see it?
- What is your address in the U.S.?
- (Including street name, city, state,
zip code and telephone number)
- Which address did you give when you
filled your I-94 form in the airplane/airport?
- Why and when did you move from there?
How did you travel?
- What evidence do you have to show
that you currently reside at the address you gave?
- (Including affidavit from your host,
correspondence received through the address, description of the area
by identifying the buses, subways, landmarks, streets, stores…)
- With whom are you staying?
- What is your relationship?
- What is your date of birth?
- What is your citizenship?
- What is your ethnic background?
- What is your religion?
- What is your marital status?
- Do you have children?
- State their names and dates of birth?
- Where are your spouse and children
now?
- Has anything happened to your spouse
or children while you were in Ethiopia or after you came to the U.S.?
- Where are your parents and siblings
now?
- Has anything happened to your parents
and siblings while you were in Ethiopia or after you came to the U.S.?
- What languages do you speak?
- Would you like to switch between
English and Amharic/Oromiffa when you feel comfortable?
- What is the highest educational level
you attended?
- Have you attended education/ tours/training/seminars…
outside of your native country?
- Where was that?
- When was that?
- Did the government that persecuted
you cover the expenses?
- Why did you not seek asylum at the
time of your travel?
- Did you work before you came to the
U.S.? How were you employed? Was your position an assignment or an ordinary
one?
- Describe where you worked and the
time you worked.
- Why were you dismissed/demoted? Who
took your position? What losses did you incur?
- How did you support yourself or your
family in between jobs or until you came here?
Fear
of Persecution
Why do you seek asylum?
What happened to you while
you were in Ethiopia?
- Who harmed or mistreated you?
- Why were you harmed?
- What is your political opinion?
- How do you prove that you are from
that ethnic group?
- What makes your ethnic group different
from others?
- Does it have its own language? Can
you speak the language? If not, why?
- What unique culture (music, wedding,
dressing, dancing, custom, ceremonies, religious belief, games, foods,
mourning…), history, psychology, political needs…?
- Why do you think the current government
persecutes your ethnic group?
Arrest
and Detention
How many times were you arrested?
- When were the times you arrested?
- When was the first time you were
arrested?
- How were you arrested?
- From where were you arrested?
- Were you summoned? Did any family
member/friend go with you to the place you were summoned?
- At what point in time did you learn
that you were under arrest?
- How many people arrested you?
- What kind of clothes did the persons
who arrested you wearing?
- How did you know they were government
forces?
- What did they say when they arrested
you?
- What were the accusations?
- What happened when you arrived at
the detention center?
- Describe the detention center.
- Describe the first day of detention.
- Were you interrogated?
- Describe what the room or place of
interrogation looks like?
- How many times and how long were
the interrogations?
- How many people interrogated you?
- Did you admit to the charges labeled
against you?
- What answers did you give them about
the charges?
- Did you sign a paper admitting the
charges?
- Were you mistreated during the interrogations?
How? (Physical beatings, torture, mental abuse, threats, intimidations,
racial or other slurs blackmail, sexual harassment…)
- What words did they use for intimidation,
threat, and slurs?
- How were you physically beaten?
- What did the interrogator use to
beat you?
- How many times were you beaten?
- Were you beaten on all occasions
of interrogations?
- Were you physically or mentally harmed?
- Did you seek medical attention while
in detention?
- Were you provided with medical attention?
- Did other inmates in prison help
to stop the bleeding or the pain?
- Did you seek medical attention after
you were released?
- Where is the medical certificate
showing your treatment?
- What was the purpose of the interrogations?
(Confession or investigation?)
- Why did the interrogations take so
long?
- What time of the day were you interrogated?
- Do you remember the name/s of your
interrogator/s?
- Could you describe the physical appearance
of your interrogator? Why did you not forget his appearance?
- Where were you taken after the interrogation?
- What does the room you were detained
in looks like? (Big, small, congested, dark, window/s, concrete, ventilation,
beds, mattresses, blanket, pajamas, mosquitoes, lice, fleas, running
water, toilet, urine buckets, clean, dirty, cold, hot…)
- Were there other inmates detained
in the room/cell?
- How many detainees were there?
- Could you give me names of a few
of them?
- What were their charges or reasons
of imprisonment?
- How did you know?
- Were any of them charged for political
reasons?
- How did you know?
- How did you spend your time in prison?
(Reading, writing, praying, talking, sleeping, playing cards…)
- How were you emotionally? (Depressed,
worried, anxious, frightened, crying…)
- Were family members/friends allowed
to see you? How often?
- What did you eat? How was the food?
- Describe me how you spent one (1)
day from morning to night?
- Were you allowed to go outside for
toilet, fresh air…? How often?
- How were you released?
- How did you find out that you were
to be released? When was the last time you were interrogated?
- Did you sign anything before you
were released?
- Were you given warnings at the time
of release? What was it?
- Were you obliged to report and sign
at the Kebele?
Were you intimidated, interrogated…during
your appearance at the Kebele?
What words did they use for
intimidation, threat, and slurs?
- What was the worst thing that happened
to you during detention? (Put all in order of severity)
- Which of these detentions was the
worst? Why?
- Were you released on bail bond? For
how much money?
- Who signed the bail? Did he deposit
the money or copy of title deed of property?
- What happened to your bail after
you came here?
- Did anyone bribe the authorities?
Who? How much? How did you know?
- Where did you go after release?
- Who came to take you?
- For whom did you talk about your
detention?
- Were you taken to court?
- What happened after you were released?
- Did you hear from your interrogator/detention
center again?
- Were you threatened or was there
surveillance? How did you know?
- Did you report to any body about
your harassment? (Government bodies, human rights group, press…?)
Second
or other Arrests and Detentions
When, where and how were you arrested for
the second time, third time…?
[Answer all the questions listed
above under “Arrest
and Detention” similarly
for all the arrests and detentions.]
Affiliation
with a Political or Social Group
Are you a member of any political group? (Political
party, support group, social organization, coalition force or front…)
- What is the name of the political
group?
- Why did you become a member of the
group?
- What are the objectives of the political
group?
- When was the group formed/established?
- What is the status of the group currently?
- Who formed the group?
- Who are the leaders of the group?
- How is the organization structured?
(National, Zone, Woreda, Kebele…levels?)
How many members does the
group have?
- When did you become a member?
- What were your reasons for joining
the political group?
- Who recruited you into the political
group?
- Are you a supporter of any political
group?
- What are your duties/obligations
for the political group?
- What is the difference between membership
and being a supporter? (Rights and duties of a member verses the choices
of a supporter?)
- Do you contribute money to the political
group? How much? Regularly?
- How much do you earn as salary?
- Do you contribute in kind to the
group? (Performing activities, collecting signatures from supporters,
writing articles, preparing and decorating halls…?)
- Do you attend meetings of the political
group? When? Where? How many times?
- What were the agendas of the meetings
at the time?
- How did you find out about the meeting?
- Have you ever given opinion on meetings?
What and where?
- How many general meetings does the
political group hold in a year?
- How many special meetings does the
group approximately hold in a year?
- Have you ever participated in a demonstration
organized by the group or any other group? When? How was it?
- Have you attended a fund-raising
event called by the organization?
- Is the group legally registered and
does it currently function in the country?
- What is your assessment of the performance
of the political group?
- What is the relationship between
the government and the political group?
- Does the government put pressures
on the political group? How? On whom?
- Has the political group ever participated
in elections?
- Have you ever voted in an election?
Who did you vote for?
- Have you recruited others into the
political group? How many people? How are you related? Are they still
affiliated with the group?
- What happened to them?
- Did the political group do anything
when you were imprisoned, harassed…?
- Is the political group a member of
any other Coalition, Front, and Organization?
- Is the political group in a civil
war?
- Does the group use violence as a
means to its end?
- Did you know that the group uses
violence?
Departure
from Your Country
How did you leave your country?
- How did you get the U.S. visa?
- Was your escape planned or a coincidence?
- Did you know that you would seek
asylum when you left your country?
- Did you carry all the documentary
evidence that you presented here when you left the country?
- Who sent it to you and where is the
postal envelop?
- What incident made you decide to
leave the country?
- How did you get your passport?
- How did you get your exit visa?
- How much did you pay? Who paid it
for you?
- Who was the middleman to get you
the exit visa?
- Did the payment for the exit visa
include people at the airport?
- Who paid for the air ticket?
- Were you afraid that you would be
caught at the airport?
- Has anything happened to family members
or others after you came to the U.S.?
- What happened?
- How did you learn about it?
- When was he/she arrested? For how
long? Why?
- What was the reason and what was
said about you?
- When was the house searched? What
was taken?
Conclusion
What do you think would happen to you if you
return to your country?
- Did you have a chance to escape harassment
by relocating/moving to another region of your country?
- Have you attended meetings or demonstration
after you came to the U.S.? Where? When? What was the reason? Who called
it?
- What evidence do you have to prove
the harassment you suffered?
- How did the person who wrote you
the affidavits come to know about your harassment?
- Do you have anything to tell me that
you think I should know?
- Have you ever harmed others as you
were harmed?
- Have you ever helped a terrorist
organization?
- Have you ever worked or supported
an organization that uses violence?
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