Folks aren’t too keen in donating to Amos Yee’s crowdfunding campaign for political asylum

It’s been more than 10 days since Amos Yee launched a gofundme campaign to crowdfund his efforts to obtain political asylum in the United States, but so far it has only reached about $2,000 (as of writing) out of the $10,000 sought after. 

The Singaporean teenager — notorious for his profanity-laced attacks on Lee Kuan Yew — has been detained by US authorities since he arrived at Chicago airport in mid December last year. He wants to seek asylum in the US, where his controversial views (for which he was jailed in Singapore twice) won’t be policed. 

His efforts are moving forward — he now has legal representation by way of pro-bono lawyers as well as support from international human rights activists. But it does come with its own challenges. 

“Coming to America came at a pretty large expense, I think I’m left with ~$1,000 in my bank account,” the 18-year-old writes on Facebook. “So it will be a bit of a struggle if I only have that amount.” 

American filmmaker and free speech advocate Nina Paley is one of the many behind the teen’s attempt for political asylum. On Dec 28, Paley helped set up a campaign to raise funds to pay for expenses such as Yee’s filing fees, phone call bills, and flight tickets for his lawyers — as well as further costs after he’s released from prison. 

“Thanks to the efforts of international human rights activists, he now has legal representation, actively working to assist him on a pro-bono basis. Nonetheless, this work is incurring costs; although many people are donating their time to help Amos, there are costs for filing fees and communications (phone calls from jail are exorbitant), and travel (even pro bono lawyers can’t fly to Chicago for free). If and when Amos is released there will be additional expenses as he survives in the U.S. and prepares for further hearings. This campaign is to raise funds to pay for some of that.”

A lot of attention has been directed towards the campaign for sure, but it doesn’t look like people are very keen on actually supporting him. Perhaps folks are just tired of donating money to him after the multiple times he’s already asked for funds in the past. 



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