The Refugee Translation Project

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The Refugee Translation Project

The Refugee Translation Project provides free professional translation support to refugees seeking a

The Refugee Translation Project provides free, professional translation services for refugees seeking asylum and other immigration relief. We offer translations of asylum statements and other supporting documents in Arabic, French, German, Greek, Kurdish, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. As the project picks up momentum, we will add more languages to our services. For updates, join our mailing list:

refugeetranslation.org/signup/

We serve refugees who have fled their countries under threat of imprisonment, torture, and even death. Those who make it to the New York area and wish to stay here must apply for asylum, which involves convincing the court that they are being persecuted in their home country and cannot be sent back for fear of further persecution. One of the most important factors for asylum seekers is that they can fully convey their stories to their lawyers and to the courts. These stories, written as statements, and the material evidence to back them up, are crucial to the refugees' success. Both the statements and the evidence, which could be anything from threatening letters, tax penalty notices, court documents, to bank statements and newspaper articles, need to be translated. Unfortunately, many of these people have lost almost everything they own and cannot afford to pay for the speedy translation of these important documents. To ease the burden, the Refugee Translation Project offers these professional translation services for free so that refugees can focus their limited resources on making a home here.

$The world is fractured, but for five hours in Philadelphia, soccer healed the cracks. My 11-year-old son and I attended ...$

07/17/2026

The world is fractured, but for five hours in Philadelphia, soccer healed the cracks.

My 11-year-old son and I attended our first World Cup match last month: Côte d’Ivoire vs. Curaçao. Inside the stadium, the heavy realities of immigration crackdowns, visa denials, and legal uncertainty vanished.

Instead, 68,000 people filled the stands with pure joy. We saw a sea of vibrant jerseys from Mexico, Haiti, the USA, Jamaica, and Morocco. We heard fans cheering in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Papiamentu.

Fans of both teams danced their hearts out together in front of the DJ booth to a set of world music and summer hits. Strangers asked one another to take their pictures and took selfies together.

When the stadium lights dim and the fanfare fades, millions of asylum seekers still face perilous journeys across oceans and jungles just to find safety. The least we can do is carry this welcoming spirit outside the stadium gates.

Join me and the Refugee Translation Project to support our fundraising campaign. Let’s keep our diverse communities alive, safe, and thriving.

Click the link in our bio to support the campaign today!

.ci

07/09/2026

Everyone Deserves a Fair Shot!
Support Asylum Seekers While Watching Morocco 🇲🇦 vs France 🇫🇷 Barzakh • Café • برزخ Thursday June 9 at 4pm! No cover! Donate via link in bio or Venmo or in-person!

As the World Cup brings the world together, asylum seekers are fighting for something even bigger than a trophy and a chance to build a new life.

Refugee Translation Project provides free translation services to people seeking asylum and other immigration relief, helping them access justice, education, healthcare, and opportunity.

Watch this exciting quarter final match while enjoying North African food and drinks from around the world! 🌎

🇫🇷🇲🇦

07/07/2026

Can you imagine coming to the US alone with a fear of being detained or deported? Who will help you?

The Refugee Translation Project faces this reality everyday when helping our most vulnerable clients:

Unaccompanied youth.

These children and young adults under the age of 21 have fled physical abuse, neglect, abandonment, and violence. They cannot return to their home countries for fear of their safety, even death.

For many of these young people, a legal path forward is called Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), and it begins with translating extensive paperwork.

SIJS is a two-step process:

1. A family court must first issue a guardianship order to a supportive adult or family member, along with issuing a special findings order – that the youth is eligible for SIJS.

2. The youth must then apply for SIJS by submitting Form I-360 to USCIS, with documentation such as their birth certificate and, if applicable, their parents’ death certificates. The documents must be received by USCIS prior to the youth’s 21st birthday

Despite attempts by the federal government to weaken SIJS, receiving this status still creates a pathway to green card or lawful permanent residency.

In 2026 alone, RTP has supported 25 SIJS cases, mostly through our partner ROCC NYC. Of these cases, 13 have passed the family court phase awaiting approval by USCIS, and 2 have already obtained SIJS!

Each one of these cases represents a young person facing many difficulties, without family members or friends to help them navigate this complex and intimidating process. Everyone deserves a chance to succeed. And to live a life with dignity and safety.

Your donation directly supports RTP in doing this important work. A gift of $100 translates two principal documents: their birth certificate and the death certificate of a parent.

Follow link in bio or comments to donate today!

These kids have already survived so much. Your donation ensures that language is not the thing that stops them.

06/26/2026

As the World Cup brings the world together, asylum seekers are fighting for something even bigger than a trophy: safety, stability, and a chance to build a new life.

Our clients have fled ethnic, political, gender-based, and anti-LGBTQ+ violence, traversed oceans and jungles, and strive to make a life of dignity here in the US.

Everyone deserves a fair shot. As soccer transcends cultural and linguistic barriers, the translation services we provide help our clients overcome similar barriers, enabling access to justice, education, healthcare, and opportunity.

Your contribution makes a huge difference!

06/18/2026

Do you want to:
Help end immigrant poverty?
Develop valuable nonprofit skills and experience?
Give back to the community?
Support an organization working with members of the immigrant and refugee communities?

If so, apply today to the NYIC VISTA position at Refugee Translation Project!

Full-time paraprofessional service at a nonprofit host organization, where they work on capacity-building projects that support their host in being able to carry out immigrant-focused anti-poverty programs and services.

The NYIC VISTA will work full-time for 12 months at Refugee Translation Project on capacity building projects around fundraising and communications.

Program benefits include:

Choice of Education Award or End of Service Stipend
Childcare assistance if eligible
Living Allowance
Health Coverage
Training
Relocation Allowance

To learn more information about this position and apply, click on link in bio or in comments

06/10/2026

Our client Yasmine won her asylum case!

Yasmine left her home country in North Africa due to the extreme persecution she experienced as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Same-sex relationships are punishable by prison there. People often suffer physical abuse, receive death threats, and experience social and family ostracization.

Yasmine applied for asylum in the US nine years ago, but due to the backlog of cases, her hearing was postponed. When her court date finally came, she needed RTP to urgently translate a new piece of evidence crucial to her upcoming case. We translated the document in time for her to submit it to the court. The immigration judge granted Yasmine asylum, and she is finally able to live safely and legally in the US.

RTP is committed to providing rapid and accurate translation services that take into account the specific requirements necessary to tell these stories of persecution so that our clients can win their cases.

During this Pride Month please take a stand, and support RTP in serving members of our LGBTQIA+ community who are seeking to live a life of dignity and safety.

Your support can really make a difference in someone’s life!

Help us win more victories like this by supporting our Translating Words Transforming Lives fundraising campaign.

Follow the link in our bio to donate today! Thank you!

06/08/2026

Since the beginning of 2026, we’ve translated over 1,200 pages of documents for 140 clients.

Lucia now has the opportunity for a fair asylum hearing in immigration court.

Mamadou was able to submit high school transcripts and enroll in a CUNY degree program.

Aisha was granted a guardianship in family court so that she could apply for her special immigrant juvenile status.

These are only a few examples of how just 5 to 10 hours of written translation can change a life.

To continue providing these transformative services, we launched our Translating Words, Transforming Lives Fundraising Campaign!

🦋 A gift of $50 begins the intake process for a new client.

🦋 A gift of $100 enables our translators to translate a high school diploma and transcript.

🦋 A gift of $500 covers the translation of a full asylum application.

06/02/2026

We wish everyone a happy Pride Month

RTP is committed to providing rapid and accurate translation services that take into account the specific requirements necessary to tell LGBTQIA+ stories to the court and other institutions, so that our clients can win their cases and be granted legal status.

Our LGBTQIA+ clients have endured strict discriminatory laws, relentless street harassment, death threats, physical and sexual abuse, imprisonment, and torture at the hands of law enforcement, community members, and family, often times utterly alone, before undertaking the difficult journey abroad.

LGBTQIA+ refugees face gender-based and homophobic violence not only in their home countries, but also at border crossings and in the countries they are passing through or seeking refuge in. We make sure that our LGBTQIA+ clients have all the language support they need to prove their cases.

You can support our efforts to continue providing this vital support by making a donation and sharing our posts. Click on the link in the comments to donate today. Thank you!

refugeetranslationproject

05/29/2026

Every day the Refugee Translation Project works closely with asylum seekers and legal service providers to deliver critical language support to communities and individuals in crisis.

Because of your support, RTP has helped prevent deportations and detention, win asylum cases, and produce essential resources so that people can better understand their legal rights.

Together, we bring hope and opportunity to some of the most vulnerable in our communities.

Behind every translated document is a person seeking safety, a family trying to stay together, a refugee fighting for the chance to rebuild their life with dignity.

As demand for our services continues to grow, your support ensures that language is never a barrier to justice, protection, or opportunity.

To strengthen that commitment, we are launching our fundraising campaign to expand the number of people we serve.

Contribute today by following the link in bio!

🦋A gift of $50 begins the intake process for a new client

🦋 A gift of $100 enables our translators to translate important identification documents

🦋 A gift of $500 covers the translation cost of a full asylum application

Address

New York, NY

Website

http://refugeetranslation.org/, https://secure.givelively.org/donate/refugee-translation-project/translating-words-trans

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