If your participant is arrested or detained by the police at any time, you should immediately contact your AFS Liaison (or other AFS Volunteer or Participant Support staff if your liaison is unavailable). If the arrest or detainment occurs after business hours and you cannot reach your AFS Liaison or other volunteer, please contact the Duty Officer immediately by calling 1-800-AFS-INFO (800-237-4636, option 9). A local volunteer, in cooperation with AFS Staff, will provide assistance to the hosted participant and their parent(s)/guardian(s)s to obtain legal representation as soon as possible.
It is the policy of AFS-USA that our participants never be questioned by authorities without legal representation present due to potential language and cultural barriers. Should police or local authorities contact you or your hosted participant and ask to question the participant regarding a legal matter, please let the authorities know that you need to contact AFS-USA in order to notify their parent(s)/guardian(s)s and arrange for legal representation for your hosted participant first.