List of people granted asylum

This is a list of people granted political asylum for individual and publicly known reasons. They were persecuted because of their actions as individuals, not because they were members of a persecuted group. Individual reasons for persecution can be found in the notes column of the table.

People granted asylum

Year	Name		Citizenship	Country which granted asylum	Occupation	Notes / References
1849		Karl Marx	Prussia	United Kingdom	German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist	In exile in London from 1849.
1929		Leon Trotsky	Soviet Union	Turkey  France  Norway  Mexico	Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army	In exile in Turkey from 1929–1933, in France 1933–1935, in Norway 1935–1937, in Mexico 1937–1940.
1954		Peter Norwood Duberg	United States	Switzerland	United States citizen, United Nations official, employed in Paris at UNESCO	For reasons of his early adulthood membership in the Communist Party, Duberg, along with several other U.S. citizens working in international organizations, became the subject of U.S. official investigation in the early 1950s. This led to a loyalty investigation by the U.S. State Department in 1953, also his name being discussed in the U.S. Congress House Committee on un-American Activities.[1] During 1953, Mr. Duberg refused to answer a series of loyalty-related questionnaires. This resulted in decisions taken which led to termination of his professional employment at the United Nations in 1954 and eventual need for political asylum, which was granted in Switzerland.
1956		József Mindszenty	Hungary	United States (embassy)  Austria	Cardinal of the Catholic Church as the Archbishop of Esztergom in Hungary
1959		The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso	Tibet	India	Head monk of the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Dalai Lama)	In exile in India since 1959.[2] Currently residing in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala from where he established the Tibetan Government in Exile.
1964-1976		João Goulart	Brazil	Uruguay	24º President of Brazil,[3] deposed by the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état.[4]	He sent a letter requesting the right of asylum on April 3, 1964[lower-alpha 1] and went in exile on April 4, 1964.[6] On April 21 he was conceded the asylum and only waived it on November 9, 1976, with the goal of returning to his home country, but died on December 6.[7]
1964-1979		Leonel Brizola	Brazil	Uruguay  United States	Federal deputy from Guanabara (1963-1964).[8]	Part of the opposition against the military dictatorship in Brazil, he had asylum from Uruguay from May 3, 1964[9] until his expulsion in 1977[10] and then had US asylum from 1977-1979.[11]
1967		Svetlana Alliluyeva	Soviet Union	United States	Writer and lecturer; daughter of Joseph Stalin
1979		Mohammad Reza Pahlavi	Iran	Egypt	Shah of Iran
1979-1980		Anastasio Somoza Debayle	Nicaragua	Paraguay	President of Nicaragua Anastasio Somoza Debayle
1984		Assata Shakur	United States	Cuba	United States citizen, African-American activist, member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA)
1986		Choi Eun-hee	South Korea	United States	South Korean actress	[12]
1986		Shin Sang-ok	South Korea	United States	South Korean film producer and director	[12]
1997		Christoph Meili	Switzerland	United States	National of Switzerland, bank-security guard and whistleblowers at the Union Bank of Switzerland (now UBS)	Mr. Meili was a security guard at UBS, where he witnessed the destruction of documents related to World War II accounts of Jews. He reported the destruction, and was subjected to prosecution, also death threats. The family fled to the United States and were granted political asylum via a private law passed specifically for the Meili family.[13][14][15][16] Unhappy in the United States, Mr. Meili later returned to Switzerland safely.
1997/8		Nury Turkel	China East Turkestan	United States	Graduate student, later Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom	[17][18][19][20]
1999–2004, 2007		Alex Konanykhin and his wife	Russia	United States	Russian entrepreneur, former banker
2001		Mohamed El Ghanem	Egypt	Switzerland	Former officer of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, lawyer, Doctor of Law and Professor.	Several years after receiving refugee status in Switzerland, Dr. El Ghanem later was arbitrarily detained without charge for refusing to collaborate with Geneva Police in a spying project on local Muslim community. He remained detained without trial for six years.
2001		Alexander Litvinenko	Russia	United Kingdom	Former officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB)
2002		Pedro Carmona	Venezuela	Colombia	Venezuelan businessman, declared interim President of Venezuela during the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt	[21]
2003		Akhmed Zakayev	Russia	United Kingdom	Former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
2003		Boris Berezovsky	Russia	United Kingdom	Former Russian government official, businessman and mathematician, member of Russian Academy of Sciences
2004		Ilyas Akhmadov	Russia	United States	Former politician and foreign minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria	[22]
2005		Bobby Fischer	United States	Iceland	Chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion, chess author
2007		John Robles	United States  Puerto Rico	Russia	Leak site owner, English teacher, investigative journalist, writer, US foreign policy critic, publisher.	John Anthony Robles II is a Taino Indian born in Puerto Rico. In 2007 under false pretenses his US Passport was revoked and he was left stateless in Russia. John worked for the Russian Government and was granted asylum along with his two US born American children. John left the US in 1995 after attempting to expose CPS child trafficking and initiating the formation of a Grand Jury. On the day the Grand Jury was to convene with Robles providing testimony John was detained but not charged and accused of working for the KGB and the Russians. He was forced to leave the US with his children of whom he had full custody and to seek asylum.[23] Robles was a correspondent, newsreader and political commentator for the Voice of Russia and quoted worldwide "Romney and his promise of 'Republican hell'". Foreign Policy.
2007		Irakli Okruashvili	Georgia	France	Georgian politician
2008		Chere Lyn Tomayko	United States	Costa Rica	United States citizen	Chere Lyn Tomayko, wanted in the United States for parental kidnapping, was granted asylum in June 2008 by Costa Rica. Tomayko's claims that her actions were justified by domestic violence she suffered were taken into account by the Costa Rican authorities.[24]
2008		Nixon Moreno	Venezuela	Holy See		[25]
2009		Manuel Rosales	Venezuela	Peru	Venezuelan educator and politician
2010		Virginia Vallejo	Colombia	United States	Colombian writer, journalist, columnist, media personality, television anchorwoman,[26] and socialite	Biography of the political asylee[27]
2011		Savva Terentyev	Russia	Estonia	Russian blogger and musician	[28]
2011		Al-Saadi Gaddafi	Libya	Niger	Third son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi; Libyan former association football player
2012		Julian Assange	Australia	Ecuador (embassy)	Australian editor, activist, publisher and journalist	Until 11 April 2019, he was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.[29]
2012		Alexander Barankov	Belarus	Ecuador	Belarusian former policeman or army captain	[30][31][32]
2012		Safia Farkash	Libya	Oman	Widow of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and former First Lady of Libya
2012		Muhammad Gaddafi	Libya	Oman	Eldest son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi; chairman of the General Posts and Telecommunications Company
2012		Ayesha Gaddafi	Libya	Oman	Fifth child and only daughter of former Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi; Libyan mediator and military official, former UN Goodwill Ambassador, and lawyer
2012		Hannibal Muammar Gaddafi	Libya	Oman	Fifth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi; first consultant to the Management Committee of the General National Maritime Transport Company (GNMTC) of Libya
2013		Edward Snowden	United States	Russia	United States citizen; CIA Officer. Former Booz Allen Hamilton employee worked as a system administrator under an NSA contract.	Granted temporary asylum in Russia.[33]
2014		Denise Harvey	United States	Canada	United States citizen	Granted asylum in Canada after being sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Florida court for having consensual sex with a 16-year-old teenage boy. The crime she was convicted of is not a crime in Canada (i.e., consensual sex between a 16-year-old and an adult not in a position of authority with respect to the teen) and the Canadian Immigration and Review Board ruled that the 30-year sentence was "cruel and unusual punishment".[34][35][36]
2014		Suren Gazaryan	Russia	Estonia	Russian citizen, Green activist	Goldman Prize recipient in 2014[37]
2014		Ali Abd Jalil	Malaysia	Sweden	Malaysian citizen, Student activist	Granted asylum in Sweden after being detained by Royal Malaysia Police and served 22 days in prison for insulting royalty[38]
2018		Nikola Gruevski	Macedonia	Hungary	Macedonian citizen, former Prime minister of Macedonia	[39]
2019		Evo Morales	Bolivia	Mexico	Bolivian citizen, former President of Bolivia	[40]
2020		Christopher Mark Doyon aka Commander X	United States	Mexico	US Citizen, Activist/Author	First US citizen in history to receive political asylum in Mexico. Granted refugee status for acts associated with Anonymous, and his support of Julian Assange & WikiLeaks.[41]

References

1. "Full text of "Scope of Soviet activity in the United States. Hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, second session–Eighty-fifth Congress, first session .."". Archive.org. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
2. "Dalai Lama Gets Asylum In India; Harried In Flight". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
3. "List of presidents of Brazil". Archived from the original on 5 May 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
4. "João Goulart". Archived from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
5. Jorge Ferreira (2011). João Goulart (in Portuguese) (3 ed.). Civilização Brasileira. p. 538. ISBN 978-85-200-1056-3.
6. Kenny Braga; João Borges de Souza; Cleber Dioni; Elmar Bones. Parlamentares Gaúchos: João Goulart (in Portuguese). p. 127. ISBN 978-85-66054-09-5. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
7. Flávio Ilha (3 March 2014). "Para tentar voltar ao Brasil, Jango renunciou ao asilo político no Uruguai" [To try to return to Brazil, Jango renounced political asylum in Uruguay] (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
8. Kenny Braga; João Borges de Souza; Cleber Dioni; Elmar Bones. Parlamentares Gaúchos: João Goulart (in Portuguese). p. 98. ISBN 978-85-66054-09-5. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
9. Jorge Ferreira (2011). João Goulart (in Portuguese) (3 ed.). Civilização Brasileira. p. 544-545. ISBN 978-85-200-1056-3.
10. Leite, Maria Cláudia Moraes (2019). "Leonel Brizola e os últimos anos de exílio" [Leonel Brizola and the last years of exile]. Tempo e Argumento (in Portuguese). 11 (26): 358. doi:10.5965/2175180311262019353. Archived from the original on 4 September 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
11. Rocha, Glaciliano (22 August 2010). "Um gaúcho em NY" [A gaucho in NY]. Folha de São Paulo (in Portuguese). Brazil. Archived from the original on 2 November 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
12. Thomson, Mike (5 March 2003). "Kidnapped by North Korea". BBC News. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
13. U.S. Congress: Bill S. 768: A bill for the relief of Michel Christopher Meili, Giuseppina Meili, Mirjam Naomi Meili, and Davide Meili, private bill sponsored by New York Senator Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY), signed into Private Law 105-1 by President Bill Clinton on 29 July 1997; accessed 30 October 2006.
14. Swiss parliament, Summer session 1997
15. Question Schlüer
16. Response of Federal Councillor Flavio Cotti, who claimed the United States was not granting the Meili family "asylum", but rather a facilitated fast-track immigration. Accessed 30 October 2006.
17. "USCIRF Welcomes Appointment by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Nury Turkel to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
18. "Nury Turkel, Commissioner". United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
19. Leigh Hartman (23 June 2020). "Once interned in China, Uyghur American fights for religious freedom". U.S. Embassy in Denmark. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
20. "ICT welcomes Nury Turkel's appointment to US religious freedom commission". International Campaign for Tibet. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
21. "Venezuelan coup leader given asylum". BBC News. 27 May 2002. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
22. U.S. Asylum for Chechen Draws Protest From Russia
23. Lally, Kathy (19 July 2013). "Snowden could follow path of U.S. asylum-seekers who led unhappy lives in Russia". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
24. "Wanted US woman freed in Costa Rica". USA Today. 26 July 2008.
25. The Vatican grants asylum to Nixon Moreno
26. Virginia Vallejo, anchorwoman 1994 on YouTube,
27. "Biography of the political asylee Virginia Vallejo". Retrieved 30 April 2018.
28. Estonia grants political asylum to Russian blogger
29. Declaración del Gobierno de la República del Ecuador sobre la solicitud de asilo de Julian Assange (in Spanish) (Archived 16 August 2012 at WebCite)
30. ""Платформа" папрасіла Эквадор не выдаваць Баранкова" (in Belarusian). Belsat TV. 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
31. "Corte analiza la extradición de bielorruso". Expreso (Ecuador). 15 August 2012. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
32. Küffner, Stephan; Megan Gibson (16 July 2012). "Assange's Special Asylum: Why Ecuador Isn't Nice to Anyone Else". Time. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
33. "Statement on Snowden's Successful Russian Asylum Bid". WikiLeaks. 1 August 2013. Archived from the original on 1 August 2013.
34. "Florida sex offender granted asylum in Canada". cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
35. Clarke, Katrina (15 May 2014). "Florida sex-offender who had relations with 16-year-old granted refugee status in Canada". The National Post. National Post. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
36. Merti, Steve. "Was Canada right to grant asylum to a U.S. sex offender?". Yahoo! News Canada. Yahoo! News. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
37. "Goldman Prize Recipient Suren Gazaryan". 29 May 2014.
38. "Malaysia activist whose passport was revoked says he has been issued asylum card by Sweden". 9 December 2014.
39. "Report: Hungary grants asylum to former Macedonian leader". 20 November 2018.
40. "Report: Bolivia crisis: Evo Morales accepts political asylum in Mexico". 12 November 2019.
41. Article in Dinero En Imagen

See also

• List of United States citizens granted political asylum in Cuba

Notes

1. His wife, Maria Thereza Goulart, and his son João Vicente Goulart and his daughter Denize, were sent to Uruguay on April 3 with a letter asking for asylum. With that, the first-lady Maria Thereza Goulart became the first exiled Brazillian during the Military Dictadorship.[5]