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.

This article is about a subgroup of refugees who were persecuted as individuals. For bigger group of refugees that include group based and non-political persecution, see List of refugees.

People granted asylum
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
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.
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 [3]
1986 Shin Sang-ok  South Korea  United States South Korean film producer and director [3]
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.[4][5][6][7] Unhappy in the United States, Mr. Meili later returned to Switzerland safely.
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 [8]
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 [9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
2008 Nixon Moreno  Venezuela   Holy See [12]
2009 Manuel Rosales  Venezuela  Peru Venezuelan educator and politician
2010 Virginia Vallejo  Colombia  United States Colombian writer, journalist, columnist, media personality, television anchorwoman,[13] and socialite Biography of the political asylee[14]
2011 Savva Terentyev  Russia  Estonia Russian blogger and musician [15]
2011 Al-Saadi Gaddafi  Libya  Nigeria 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.[16]
2012 Alexander Barankov  Belarus  Ecuador Belarusian former policeman or army captain [17][18][19]
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.[20]
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".[21][22][23]
2014 Suren Gazaryan  Russia  Estonia Russian citizen, Green activist Goldman Prize recipient in 2014[24]
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[25]
2018 Nikola Gruevski  Macedonia  Hungary Macedonian citizen, former Prime minister of Macedonia [26]
2019 Evo Morales  Bolivia  Mexico Bolivian citizen, former President of Bolivia [27]
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. [28]

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. Thomson, Mike (5 March 2003). "Kidnapped by North Korea". BBC News. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  4. 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.
  5. Swiss parliament, Summer session 1997
  6. Question Schlüer
  7. 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.
  8. "Venezuelan coup leader given asylum". BBC News. 27 May 2002. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  9. U.S. Asylum for Chechen Draws Protest From Russia
  10. 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.
  11. "Wanted US woman freed in Costa Rica". USA Today. 26 July 2008.
  12. The Vatican grants asylum to Nixon Moreno
  13. Virginia Vallejo, anchorwoman 1994 on YouTube,
  14. "Biography of the political asylee Virginia Vallejo". Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  15. Estonia grants political asylum to Russian blogger
  16. Declaración del Gobierno de la República del Ecuador sobre la solicitud de asilo de Julian Assange (in Spanish) (Archived 16 August 2012 at WebCite)
  17. ""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.
  18. "Corte analiza la extradición de bielorruso". Expreso (Ecuador). 15 August 2012. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  19. 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.
  20. "Statement on Snowden's Successful Russian Asylum Bid". WikiLeaks. 1 August 2013. Archived from the original on 1 August 2013.
  21. "Florida sex offender granted asylum in Canada". cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  22. 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.
  23. Merti, Steve. "Was Canada right to grant asylum to a U.S. sex offender?". Yahoo! News Canada. Yahoo! News. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  24. "Goldman Prize Recipient Suren Gazaryan". 29 May 2014.
  25. "Malaysia activist whose passport was revoked says he has been issued asylum card by Sweden". 9 December 2014.
  26. "Report: Hungary grants asylum to former Macedonian leader". 20 November 2018.
  27. "Report: Bolivia crisis: Evo Morales accepts political asylum in Mexico". 12 November 2019.
  28. Article in Dinero En Imagen

See also
  • List of United States citizens granted political asylum in Cuba
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