PHILADELPHIA (CN) - The 3rd Circuit ruled that a Colombian woman was in danger of being tortured if returned to her homeland based on her claim that she escaped involuntary servitude after being abducted and confined by a guerrilla revolutionary group.
Judge Fisher ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals to determine if Claudia Rocio Gomez Zuluaga would be safe if sent to another part of her country.
Zuluaga said her family moved twice to avoid the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, an opposition group in a civil war with the Colombian government. It is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Zuluaga claimed FARC members interrogated her twice because they disapproved of her dating police or military officers. She said her most harrowing experience was an eight-day kidnapping by FARC members, who forced her to promise to work for them when she graduated from dental hygienist school.
She allegedly escaped and eventually fled to the United States, but other family members were not so fortunate. Her cousin was murdered by FARC members after he escaped involuntary servitude, and her father disappeared shortly after she fled, Zuluaga claimed.
She sought asylum under the Convention Against Torture. Fisher ruled that she is part of a protected group, since FARC has been shown to attack those who escape their servitude, as well as women who date government officers.
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