Experts on countries of origin by country

I am a Latin Americanist geographer and an expert on Honduras, where I have lived and worked off and on since 1991. My PhD is from Louisiana State University (2001), Master's from University of Texas, and B.A. from Penn State. I have taught in several universities in the US and China, and am currently an independent consultant. I am an an author on over 50 professional publications and have given around 100 presentations, many related to Honduras. My main contributions to the academic literature include the historical and spatial dimensions of land- and identity-based conflicts in Honduras, relationships between people and the environment (particularly ethno-ornithology and ethnobotany), and the development of theory for applying the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to research in the social sciences. In addition to publishing, I consult to community groups in Honduras and Mexico on a range of topics related to environmental and social struggles.

I have served as a country of origin expert for Honduras since 2001 in a total of 13 cases, for all of which I have prepared reports based on original ethnographic research. All of the cases I have worked on involved Hondurans in the US seeking asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the Convention Against Torture.… Read more

Barrister and academic, with extensive research, publishing and advisory experience in former Soviet Union and other countries, fluent in Russian

Leon Boyer is an expert in Mexico security conditions with over 24 years of service in the United States Border Patrol. Throughout his career, he held various leadership roles, including at the U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters’ Intelligence Division, where he contributed to national security efforts and intelligence operations. As the Director of United Voices Interpreting and Consulting, LLC, Mr. Boyer provides expert consultation and witness services on topics such as transnational criminal organizations, narcotics and human trafficking, alien smuggling, migration trends, and security conditions, with a specialized focus on Mexico. Mr. Boyer serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Social Science Division at St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Michigan, and in the Public Service Institute at Macomb Community College in Clinton Township, Michigan. He develops and lectures courses in Political Science, Homeland Security, Intelligence Analysis and Security Management, and Border Security, shaping the next generation of security professionals. Mr. Boyer holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from the University of Arizona, a Master of Arts in International Relations and Conflict Resolution from American Military University, and a Master of Science… Read more

Cate Buchanan specializes in conflict analysis, mediation, and process design. Country foci in 2026 are Burma/Myanmar and Thailand. Previously, from 2015-17, she was Senior Adviser to the Nyein (Shalom) Foundation Myanmar supporting national dialogues, ceasefire implementation, and peace negotiations. In 2018/19 she was a member of the UN Mediation Support Unit’s Standby Team of Experts. In 2020/21 she was a Senior Adviser to the Office of the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Yemen. Over 2021 to the present Cate is Conflict Adviser to the Myanmar Livelihoods and Food Security Fund. From 2001-2013, she was a Programme Manager and Senior Adviser with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Cate also manages a peace coaching process in Myanmar, is a Senior Adviser to European Institute for Peace, UN Women Afghanistan and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

Dr. Merga Yonas Bula is a doctoral graduate of Leipzig University's Institute for Media and Communications Science. He is the author of the 2023 book, "Transnational Communication and Identity Construction in Diaspora: A Comparative Analysis of Four Diaspora Communities from the Horn of Africa" (Springer VS).

He currently lectures in Political Communication at the DW Akademie, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, and conducts research at the Research Center Development Communication (EC4SC) at Leipzig University.

Nicola Bulled is a public health anthropologist. Her scholarship interrogates health inequalities, using mixed methods to examine the intersection of biology with the social to offer multi-level perspectives on public health programming, service delivery, and policy. Her specific fields of interest include HIV, infectious diseases, disease prevention technologies, health communication, and community collaboration.  She has engaged in research and public health programming in South Africa, Lesotho, Liberia, Greece, and the United States. Her research has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Fulbright IIE. 

My primary regional expertise lies in the Horn of Africa, particularly Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and broader Sahel region (specifically Niger, Northern Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, and Mali). I also have thematic expertise on trafficking along Gulf of Aden and Red Sea transit routes, including Yemen. 

I specialise in, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) claims, trafficking-related protection claims, child asylum cases, statelessness (including Rohingya claims), and Article 1F exclusion analysis under the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

My reports are prepared in accordance with expert witness duties to the Tribunal as set out in the Practice Directive and are designed to assist the court with independent, evidence-based analysis. I have undertaken specialist expert witness training at the Refugee Law Initiative. 

I am an international refugee law expert with over a decade of frontline experience in refugee status determination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

I have served with UNHCR across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, including Somalia (2023–2024), Niger (2024), Ethiopia (2019–2020), Tunisia (2024–2025), Egypt (2016–2017), and India (2018–2019), conducting over 2,000 assessments.… Read more

I am a Law and DEI expert with 15+ years of experience and intersectional background. I have presence on: Walpole, GQ Heroes, MBS & British Council of Fashion, Attitude Magazine, quoted by Vogue Business and Boston Consultancy Group. I teach at Instituto Marangoni and have extensive experience in: LGBTQ+ Rights, Human Rights in Latin America, Political Landscape of Brazil and Latin American Countries, Law and Politics. 

Inge Butter holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and is a specialist on Chad and aspects of the Central African Republic (CAR). She has spent most of her professional career working for and affiliated with the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands. She has 10 years of experience setting up research projects, carrying out fieldwork, analyzing results, monitoring and evaluating the process, as well as putting together reports for a variety of audiences. For the PhD, a total of 12 months of fieldwork were carried out over a period of three years, in both urban and rural locations in Chad and CAR. In that time, she became part of a strong network of local Chadian professionals. Inge’s areas of interest include (post)conflict dynamics and how these play out in an everyday setting, understanding local and trans-national socio-economic networks, and the interplay of insecurity and belonging. Her past research in Chad and CAR focussed on Arab nomads. While currently based in the USA, she is working on proposals for projects in Anglophone Cameroon, and publishing her PhD thesis as a book with De Gruyter.

Historian, specialised in the history, politics and cultures of Iran and the Kurds.

Dr Hazel Margaret Cameron – Expert Witness and Country Specialist Independent expert on barriers to reintegration and risks on return in a range of African countries, with evidence judicially commended and relied upon in the UK, US, EU, and Hong Kong. Dr Cameron is a critical criminologist and internationally recognised expert witness specialising in barriers to reintegration faced by failed asylum seekers and deportees. 

Her expertise covers: 

Dr Cameron has been instructed in more than three hundred cases of asylum, deportation, and human rights cases, including claims under Articles 3 and 8 ECHR. Her reports have been relied upon in courts and tribunals in the UK, US, EU, and Hong Kong. Judicial decisions consistently commend her evidence as “cogent, impartial, and highly persuasive,” describing it as “compelling, impartially applied, with a… Read more

Dr. Campbell is an interdisciplinary academic and policy expert with specialised expertise in corruption, anti‑corruption, illicit finance, and serious and organised crime, with a primary regional focus on the Caribbean. She currently serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Global Campus and as a Contributing Consultant to Transparency International. Her work is grounded in International Political Economy, Risk Management and Compliance, Rule of Law, and Global Governance. She is fully independent and has no professional, financial, or institutional affiliations that would impair her objectivity as an Expert Witness.

She holds a PhD with distinction in Rule of Law and Global Governance from the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her doctoral research examined money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion in Caribbean offshore financial centres and resulted in a peer‑reviewed monograph published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. She has since authored and contributed to numerous academic articles, policy papers, special reports, and country analyses published across Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean.

Simone Elyse Carter is a public health and humanitarian expert with over 15 years of experience in outbreak analytics, research coordination, and strategic leadership. She currently serves as the Lead for Integrated Outbreak Analytics (IOA) at UNICEF, providing technical guidance and capacity strengthening for emergency response efforts worldwide.

Throughout her career, Simone has played a key role in developing data-driven solutions for complex health crises, leading interdisciplinary teams, and fostering global partnerships. Her work has included chairing the IOA working group under the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and overseeing systematic research dissemination to improve outbreak response strategies.

Previously, Simone managed the Integrated Analytics Cell (CAI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she contributed to the development of evidence-based response mechanisms during public health emergencies. Her expertise spans epidemiology, humanitarian coordination, and policy development, making her a vital resource in advancing data-informed decision-making in crisis contexts.

The Expert is a Sub-Saharan Africa specialist with extensive experience in Country Operations Management, Resource Mobilization, Business Development, Communications and Advocacy across multiple countries with leading international NGOs.

Andrea Chiovenda is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his PhD in anthropology from Boston University in 2015. His ethnographic fieldwork research was carried out in Afghanistan from 2009 until 2013, and again in 2016, and focused on the psychological impact of cultural norms of masculinity among Pashtun men. In 2020, Dr. Chiovenda published a book based on this research, entitled Crafting Masculine Selves: Culture, War and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Boyer Prize for contributions to psychoanalytic anthropology, from the Society for Psychological Anthropology. Additionally, he published several articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited volumes on conflict, violence, and gender relations in Afghanistan. Since 2016, Dr. Chiovenda has been carrying out original ethnographic research in Greece, investigating the psychological impact of the migratory experience among Afghan refugees in the country. 

I am a Consultant Psychologist with over 25 years of clinical experience specializing in complex trauma/C-PTSD. I have completed a doctorate degree in Psychology from Wolverhampton University and a clinical supervision training from Oxford University. My background includes senior NHS leadership roles, clinical team management, and policy development, alongside extensive experience in teaching, research and clinical supervision. 

As an Expert Court Witness, I have extensive experience assessing individuals and families for the Immigration & Asylum Chamber and Family Court, with a particular focus on high-stakes asylum cases involving risk of persecution, apostasy, and victims of trafficking, torture, sexual exploitation, and abuse. Utilizing a trauma-informed forensic framework, I address critical issues of credibility, memory inconsistencies, and sur place activities, providing the Tribunal with robust clinical evidence that bridges the gap between psychological vulnerability and legal disclosure hurdles. 

My expertise extends to comprehensive family and child assessments, focusing on attachment, transgenerational trauma, and the "best interests of the child" in deportation or care proceedings. I offer deep clinical insight into Muslim and… Read more

A UK trained Barrister and a practicing lawyer working in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. An avid political enthusiast and human rights activist with the history of academic teaching and research. Very updated with the prevailing human rights condition, political parties and political situation and judicial administration of Bangladesh and regularly providing expert opinion on these issues.

Specialist in political oppression, human rights, Expanding Communal Riot, Rule of Law, Freedom of Speech and Government Rulings, and Security and Justice with a particular expertise on social/ethnic/political groups at risk of persecution in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Myanmar. Experience in writing legal grounds and producing expert reports for asylum cases, persecution, gender inequality, Religious Extremists and vulnerable condition of women and children, etc

Expertise in the Laws of Immigration, Right of Immigrant, Human Rights under the purview of various Social and Political aspects of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Myanmar.

Cintia Cruz has extensive research experience, including one and a half years at the Gender and Race Department at UC Berkeley. They earned a PhD in Gender and Women’s Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Their thesis, defended in 2019, “Trails of Black Women,” centered on the comparative self-esteem of Black women in Oakland, California, and Salvador, Brazil. After receiving their doctorate, they served at the United Nations: Joint Program on the Eradication of Child Marriage and Early Unions in Latin America and the Caribbean (2021); The Project to Prevent Pregnancy among Teenagers at the Triple Border, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (2019). 

Dr. Cruz became broadly familiar with the numerous and varying structural impediments and cultural practices constraining girls’ mainly black and Indigenous, in the region. They hold a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and gather an academic trajectory strongly defined by the alignment of project management and research wo to enhance marginalized communities’ autonomy. In 2022, as a national consultant for UNICEF, they delivered the Brazilian report to the Summit Education at the United Nations General Assembly 2022, entitled The Map of Hope to Transform Education in Brazil. In 2020, Dr. Cruz was the… Read more

Dimitris Dalakoglou is a Full Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a widely cited scholar on Balkan studies. His research focuses on Albania and Greece, and he has authored more than one hundred publications, including expert reports, book monographs, peer-reviewed articles, and documentary films. His work has been featured in several international media outlets, including the BBC, The Guardian, Channel 4, and The Washington Times. He has served for several years as a Country of Origin Information (COI) expert on Albania and Greece and has provided expert evidence in a number of legal cases in the United Kingdom and the United States, including country guidance cases before the Upper Tribunal.