Experts on countries of origin by surname

Fowzia Abdi is a qualified Immigration Solicitor and Somalia Country Expert who combines active legal practice with deep country-level knowledge. As a practising solicitor, she brings first-hand understanding of the evidential requirements and procedural standards of UK tribunals, ensuring her expert reports are directly responsive to the legal questions at issue.

As Director of a UK-based immigration law firm, Fowzia has extensive professional experience spanning governance, justice and security sector reform, migration, and socio-political dynamics within the Federal Republic of Somalia. Her professional portfolio encompasses legal practice, academic teaching, policy consultancy, and in-country field research across both urban and remote areas. She has advised government institutions, NGOs, international organisations, and private sector partners on policy analysis, due diligence, and justice and security sector reform.

She maintains active professional networks with Somali human rights lawyers, civil society actors, and law firms, enabling her to secure verified, up-to-date information that ensures her reports accurately reflect current conditions on the ground. Fowzia previously lectured on the LLM programme at Somali National… Read more

Sharon Abramowitz is Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. She is a medical anthropologist who specializes in community engagement, mental health, gender violence, epidemic preparedness and response. She has been a leading global advocate for building national community engagement capacity, strengthening integrated analytics (IOA) and social science, risk communications, and community engagement (RCCE) capacity, metrics, and utilization in public health emergencies.

She is presently on the editorial board of the Journal for Humanitarian Affairs, and is honorary faculty at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health. She is the author of the Inter-Agency Minimum Quality Standards and Indicators for Community Engagement and the monograph Searching for Normal in the Wake of the Liberian War, co-editor of the book Medical Humanitarianism: Ethnographies of Practice, and has written for Nature Human Behavior, Social Science and Medicine, The Lancet, Global Public Health, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and the Journal of Infectious Disease. Lastly, Abramowitz leads Communitology, an initiative that connects social science researcher/country-of… Read more

Fahim Abrar Abid is a legal researcher specialised in international law, human rights and asylum cases. He has provided expert opinions used in UK First-tier & Upper Tribunals proceedings, the University of London Refugee Law Clinic, and U.S. immigration matters (USCIS). His reports focus on risk on return, credibility in light of country conditions, political opinion (actual/imputed), and the treatment of minorities, journalists, activists and detainees. He is an Erasmus Mundus scholar in international law and security and the Founder of the Bangladesh Society of International Law.

Reports delivery: Within 2 weeks (For emergency cases: 1 week)

Lesley Agams is a Nigeria-based legal expert and country conditions specialist, providing authoritative reports and analysis on gender, human rights, and socio-legal issues across West Africa. She goes beyond the headlines to deliver nuanced, data-driven analysis on women's rights, sexual & gender-based violence, the socio-political landscape in Nigeria and more.

Expertise on religion and politics in a number of African, Asian and Latin American countries - and in a number of languages. Current research includes China (Tibet), Chile, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Argentina, DRC, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe; Libya and Syria

Prince Agwu is a Nigerian academic with a social work background. He specialises in social policy, focusing on migration, health, and education. He is a passionate researcher, with extensive expertise in qualitative and quantitative studies. His training came from Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

Waheed Ahmad is a human rights lawyer from Pakistan who currently serves as an Advisory Committee Member at The National Commission of Human Rights Pakistan. As an Advocate at the High Court of Pakistan and a registered foreign lawyer (SRA) in England & Wales, he has worked as an Appellate Court Attorney for the past 24 years, defending more than a thousand clients, including juveniles, women, and minorities, including members of the LGBT community. He is the author of “Young Lives, Justice Delayed: Tracing Juveniles Facing or Convicted of Offenses Punishable by Death Penalty (DP)” and “Life Imprisonment (LI) in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” He specializes in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions and has prepared expert reports for lawyers and organizations concerning Pakistani cases. His expertise spans a wide range of critical issues, including:

Omer is a Somali speaking solicitor (presently non-practicing), with expertise on all aspects of irregular migration from Africa and Yemen. He is based in the region with offices in the UK, and with extensive experience of delivering clear concise and cogent subject matter expertise to UK courts.

Dr. Ali is a leading authority on Middle Eastern law and politics, known for combining deep regional knowledge with sharp legal and political analysis. He works at the intersection of courts, policy, and academia, advising on some of the most complex and sensitive issues facing the region. His expertise spans constitutional law, conflict, governance, and international accountability, grounded in long experience with real-world cases and institutions. He is especially valued for his ability to explain complicated Middle Eastern realities clearly, persuasively, and with credibility.

Mohamed Naser Alam is a Barrister-at-Law at the Bar of England and Wales, and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh with over 30 years of comprehensive legal experience spanning immigration and asylum law, human rights, and sophisticated corporate-commercial practice, with a primary geographic focus on Bangladesh. He combines frontline refugee protection work with deep expertise in Bangladesh’s legal, political, and human rights landscape, making him a highly qualified country expert for cases involving Bangladesh.

He served as Legal Counsellor with the UNHCR Urban Refugee Project in Bangladesh, conducting refugee status interviews, assessing protection claims, analysing country-of-origin information, and assisting with third-country resettlement applications. He appeared as a legal representative in numerous Immigration and Asylum appeals before the IAT. He served as a National Consultant for UKAID (DFID) to review the Police Reform Project, the Access to Justice Project, and the Legal Aid Project in Bangladesh. He has in-depth experience and understanding of human rights abuses, arbitrary detention, custodial torture and death, extra-judicial killings, politically motivated false criminal cases, abuse by the law-enforcing agencies, enforced disappearance,… Read more

The Expert is the Founder and Director of Kuwaiti Bedoons Movement. Producing export reports for stateless people as well as, administration and consultations.

Dr Gilberto Algar-Faria (he/him/his) is an expert in the Sri Lankan post-war environment (PhD Politics, Bristol, 2018) with over a decade of experience in writing country expert witness reports. He has written over 50 reports for the UK courts considering asylum appeals from Sri Lankan individuals (including [2020] UKAITUR PA029062016, [2021] UKAITUR PA124362019 and [2024] UKAITUR UI2022005451) and has also contributed to Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Responses to Information Requests. Previously, Dr Algar-Faria was the Development & Research Manager at the Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture (2023), and a Sessional Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia (2021–22). Before that he was a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the University of Oxford (2020–21) and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol (2016–19). He writes reports in a private capacity.

• The Expert was exposed to the Kuwaiti culture and dialect from his childhood all the way to adulthood
• Is familiar with Bidoon areas in Kuwait as he previously visited them.
• Has an in-depth knowledge of the Bidoon’s history, activities and longstanding problems.
• Has had contacts with hundreds of Bidoons including some known political activists.
• Has issued reports that have been influential in the court’s decision process.
• Uses a thorough and a detailed method of assessment.
The Expert was born in 1973 in Iraq, Basra city which is adjacent to the Kuwaiti border. In addition to having Kuwaiti relatives, the geographical proximity of Kuwait to the city of Basra enhanced his exposure to the Kuwaiti culture and dialect from his childhood all the way to adulthood. For instance, interacting with Kuwait nationals who used to cross the borders freely during the eighties during which and the Kuwaiti TV channels where mainstream TV in every Iraqi household in Basra.
The exposure to Bidoons was enhanced following the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait in 1990 as many of them were deported by the Kuwaiti authorities and the majority of them lived in the Iraqi cities of Basra and Thi Qar.
In 1994 he completed his Bachelor Degree in Petroleum… Read more

Syed Mohammad Ali is a lecturer for the MA in Global Security Studies program ay Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ali has a PhD in development anthropology, and he has extensive experience working with multilateral, bilateral, government, and non-government organizations on varied international development challenges.

Besides teaching, Dr. Ali is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., and he is a Non-Resident Faculty member affiliated with the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. He is also the author of several peer-reviewed articles, half a dozen book chapters, as well as the book Development, Poverty and Power in Pakistan: The Impact of State and Donor Interventions on Farmers, published by Routledge in 2015. His other publications include numerous policy papers for leading think-tanks including the United States Institute of Peace and the Middle East Institute. 

Dr. Ali writes a weekly op-ed in the Express Tribune, an affiliate of the New York Times in Pakistan, since 2011. He regularly participates in panel discussions on several Pakistani news channels, as well as on international media outlets including Al Jazeera, China Global Television Network, Channel NewsAsia, Voice of America’s televised Urdu Service programs… Read more

Andrea S. Allen research has addressed matters of race, sexuality, gender, violence, and religion in Brazil and the African Diaspora. Her first book Violence and Desire in Brazilian Lesbian Relationships (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) focused on the experiences of lesbian women in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Dr. Allen is currently working on a second book project about LGBT evangelical Brazilians, race, religious identity, and sexual subjectivity.

Dr. Allo is a senior legal scholar specializing in human rights, political repression, conflict sensitivity, social movements, political parties, post-conflict reconstruction, peace-building, and transitional justice. A native of the Horn of Africa, Dr. Allo possesses extensive knowledge and experience in the region.

Over the past five years, Dr. Allo has been commissioned by law firms, public bodies, and NGOs to prepare country expert reports on various issues, including political repression, political parties, social movements, protests, nationality laws, healthcare provisions, national service, trafficking, and other cultural and social matters.

Dr. Allo has authored over 100 country expert reports for solicitors and attorneys in the UK, USA, and Europe.

Niki Alsford is Professor of Anthropology and Human Geography, and Director for the Institutes for the Study of the Asia Pacific (ISAP), and the Institute for Area and Migration Studies (AMIS) at the University of Central Lancashire. He is a Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. In 2023, he was selected as the Ewha Global Fellow at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. Alsford's research focuses primarily on Taiwan, Korea, and the Pacific Islands. He is the book series editor for the Taiwan Series at BRILL, the Korean series at Routledge, and a new series on Asia Pacific Cultures, Communities, and Landscapes at Palgrave Macmillan.  Alsford is the author of Taiwan Lives: A Socio-Political History, published by the University of Washington Press in 2024. 

Alsford’s research focuses primarily on comparative anthropology within the Asia Pacific region. Chief among these is an engagement with Austronesian migration and the maritime cultures of Pacific islands. His present work is bridging a cognitive divide in environmental discussions between Indigenous knowledge and climate science. Alsford is a registered… Read more

Political scientist with comprehensive experience from research and Country of Origin reports and documents assessments. Research experience on political economy, opposition and political parties, political rights, democratic institutionalisation, NGOs. Expert on human and political rights abuse, political persecution, LGBT persecution, risk of return and of brutal and degrading treatment and torture.

Goal-focused, strategic planner, and passionate leader with extensive experience implementing effective, global strategies to stabilize communities through capacity building, promoting human rights and democratization, and amplifying the value of communication. Skilled in collaborating with all members of the organization to build bridges across ideological divides, trusted to tailor language, tone, style, and format to match the audience. Passionate educator with two years’ experience as a High School Principal. Proactively pursues the development and execution of ethical leadership, personnel management, and clear research/discovery goals with comprehensive plans delivering measurable impact to in-house operations. 

An accomplished expert in Lebanese, Levantine, and MENA law, politics, and culture, Dr. Isaac Andakian brings extensive experience and a proven track record in political advisory roles. From 2001 to 2009, Dr. Andakian served as a trusted senior political adviser to two members of the Lebanese Parliament and a minister in the Lebanese cabinet. Over nine years, he counseled the Armenian Orthodox Community Court of Lebanon and the Municipality of the City of Anjar, Lebanon, from 2003 to 2012.

During Dr. Andakian’s… Read more