MICLU - Key Persons
Anna is our specialist children and young person's immigration solicitor. Anna has been practising immigration and asylum law since 1998, and has worked at Islington Law Centre since 2003. Anna has experience of running a wide variety of cases having extensive expertise in representing victims of human trafficking, slavery and exploitation. Since 2010 Anna has specialised in immigration and asylum cases involving children and young people representing child victims of trafficking, young people fleeing war, conflict and violence and undocumented young migrants in the UK. Anna was awarded Immigration Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award in 2006 in recognition of her expertise in supporting and representing highly vulnerable migrants. Anna has been a consultant Peer Reviewer for the Legal Aid Agency in the Immigration and Asylum category since 2006. Contact Anna at annas@islingtonlaw.org.uk
Deborah joined MiCLU in March 2016 as our Legal and Research Officer. She first became involved with refugee law while studying her Master's at Charles University in Prague after visiting a Czech immigration detention centre. Deborah went on to work at Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance, a British charity that provided legal aid and psychosocial services to refugees in Egypt, where she led the unaccompanied minors team, and later as refugee status determination team leader. Deborah has taught comparative international refugee law at the American University in Cairo, and also worked for UNHCR as a resettlement consultant and a refugee status determination appeals officer. She is an accredited caseworker at OISC Level 2, and from November 2015 supported our Centre's work to reunite refugees in Calais with family members in the UK. Deborah leads our legal research programme underpinning MiCLU's advice, policy and legal education work. She also works at Freedom from Torture as Data Analyst. Contact Deborah at deboraht@islingtonlaw.org.uk.
Esme brings a wealth of experience from her work with community groups. Having founded Refugee Action York and End Child Detention Now, since 2004 she has carried out considerable work for Shpresa Programme supporting trafficked women and unaccompanied asylum-seeing children from Albania. In recent years an increasing amount of her time has been spent trying to find good quality legal representation for clients. As a consequence she decided to retrain as an immigration practitioner. She completed the LPC in 2015 and was awarded a Justice First Fellowship training contact with MiCLU at Islington Law Centre, on completion of which she was admitted to the roll of solicitors in 2020. Contact Esme at esmem@islingtonlaw.org.uk.
Gurpinder Khanba has joined MiCLU as our Breaking the Chains Project Casework Supervisor, and will be working in partnership with Shpresa Programme to represent Albanian children and young people and deliver training to empower young people.
Gurpinder has over 10 years of experience in Immigration and Asylum Law. She is a member of the Law Society's Immigration Panel and is accredited as a Level 2 Supervisor. Gurpinder has represented clients before the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in a variety of substantive appeal matters and has dealt with a high volume of cases representing clients who have suffered severe trauma, minor children, vulnerable women and victims of human trafficking. She managed the legal aid immigration contract for two offices at an East Midlands firm and worked closely with charities and refugee organisations to set up an outreach service, which was the result of her being the only legal aid provider in Derby.
Gurpinder completed her LLB Hons at the University of Leicester and undertook the Bar Vocational Course at The College of Law (London). She was called to the Bar in October 2008. Contact Gurpinder at gurpinderk@islingtonlaw.org.uk.
Irene is a specialist children's caseworker at MiCLU. She has over eight years' experience in immigration and asylum law and is a Chartered Legal Executive accredited as a Senior Immigration Caseworker and Supervisor by the Law Society. Irene's experience includes assisting vulnerable clients, such as unaccompanied children and victims of torture and domestic violence. She has also assisted many victims of trafficking and has successfully challenged negative NRM decisions.
As a child, Irene was forced to leave the Soviet Union with her family and they were granted refugee status in the United States. Irene initially trained as a teacher of English as an Additional Language (EAL), as she wanted to help other children fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries. She was inspired to pursue law whilst teaching at a secondary school in South London. Having completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees, Irene went on to complete a post-graduate diploma in law and qualified as a CILEx lawyer in 2022.
As a former refugee Irene knows first-hand how stressful the immigration system can be. She is passionate about providing a high-quality service and achieving the very best results for her clients.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor at MiCLU 's Kids
Nisa is a supervising solicitor at MiCLU's Kids in Need of Defense UK project, working on leave to remain and citizenship applications for children and families. She has experience working with children, young people and families at various stages of the immigration and asylum process, including appeals, asylum, trafficking, human rights and fresh claims. She initially trained in police law and inquests before practising in immigration and asylum law. As a former child refugee herself, Nisa is committed to assisting children, young people and vulnerable clients fleeing persecution and to establish their rights in the UK. Nisa is a native Dari/Farsi speaker and fluent in French.
Job Titles:
- Solicitor at MiCLU 's Kids
Rebecca is a supervising solicitor at MiCLU's Kids in Need of Defense UK project, working on citizenship applications for minors. She has worked in immigration law for more than a decade, in both private practice and the charity sector. Since qualifying as a solicitor in 2014, she has undertaken a range of cases including complex protection, human rights and statelessness claims, at application stage right through to the Tribunals and High Court. Her work representing trafficked unaccompanied asylum seeking children earned her a nomination for the 2019 ECPAT Children's Champion Award. Contact Rebecca at rebeccaf@islingtonlaw.org.uk.
Richard works for a number of different organisations that support children and young people. Alongside his work for MiCLU he also co-facilitates the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation's Leaving Care Learning Programme. Before moving into freelance policy consultancy work for organisations supporting children and young people, Richard worked at The Children's Society for many years in their Policy, Research and Public Affairs Team.