Proving Fear: the corporeal witness and its role in asylum seeking

This essay examines the cases of two Central American asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. It argues that their bodies, marked by scars, mutilations, or other forms of trauma, emerge as credible witnesses in support of asylum seekers’ claims. Through their scars, fear becomes visible, quantifiable and relatable. It further argues that despite the “objective” quality of the credible fear test, the credibility of asylum claimants’ stories hinges on the acknowledgement or disavowal of their fear, suggesting the impossibility of establishing fear as an “objective fact”, speaking instead to a lack of responsiveness and responsibility towards others.