Every year, more than 40,000 people flee torture and unbearable persecution in their home country and seek safety in the U.S. The University of Michigan Asylum Collaborative, working in concert with Physicians for Human Rights and the University of Michigan Law School, provides physical and psychological evaluations as medical testimony, documenting and validating these human rights abuses.
The University of Michigan Asylum Collaborative (UMAC) was founded in 2013 by student members of the University of Michigan Medical School chapter of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). In partnership with the University of Michigan Law School, PHR, and community organizations such as Freedom House Detroit, the mission of this student-led initiative is to advocate for victims and survivors of human rights violations and serve as a voice for those who have limited access to such resources.
Our current focus is to facilitate inter-professional collaboration between pro-bono legal and medical providers to conduct forensic evaluations and medical affidavits for asylum, human trafficking, and other legal cases in which survivors of human rights abuses are seeking legal protection such as asylum status.