Experts on countries of origin by country

Country Witness Expert on India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.

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► Responds to inquiries within 1 hour and deliver reports within 1 week.
► Adheres to the minimum rate that meets Legal Aid requirements.

Expert at the international agency The Human Rights:
We provide expert witness reports for asylum cases worldwide, covering human rights violations, political persecution, and systemic oppression. Our reports are trusted by lawyers, courts, and immigration authorities in the UK, USA, Canada, and the EU.

Winner of the Expert Witness Awards in the category of Best Immigration, Asylum & Refugee Expert Witness 2024

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.

Dr. Danica Anderson is a US-based international social scientist, researcher, and forensic counselor (criminal justice specialist) with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Dr. Anderson is a member of the UNESCO scientific and education CID council and of the International Criminal Court, a Psycho-social Victim Gender Expert for trauma with war crimes and war crimes survivors. She is a trauma clinician who has traveled the world bearing witness to―and researching how to heal transgenerational trauma and continues to make crisis responses while addressing the needs of immigrants and refugees during and in the aftermath of natural disasters and wars. Trauma response and social science and research fieldwork occurred in Afghanistan, Haiti, India, Sri Lanka, and many conflict-ridden regions and war regions.

Dr. Anderson's international trauma work occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa for the International Criminal Court and the United Nations World Food Program in Sudan. In former Yugoslavia, Bosnia Herzegovina, her study and clinically informed trauma for over two decades provided an archive of information on women's transgenerational trauma for war and war crimes survivors involving asylum and visas. Dr. Anderson worked with Mexico's National Human Rights, Mexico City, and the… Read more

Dr. Grace Cheng is the Founding Director of the Center for Human Rights in the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University, where she also teaches courses on human rights, political violence, and the politics of resistance at SDSU.  Dr. Cheng's writings and research interests concern questions of human rights, self-determination, and sovereignty, as well as migration and displacement.  She was a Fulbright Specialist (2018-2023), involving a project at the Centre for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration, University of Jember in Indonesia and is involved in scholar-practitioner projects to integrate human rights principles and redress for past abuses in efforts to re-establish peace, including as a member of the Board of Advisors of the West African Transitional Justice Centre (Nigeria) and Advisor to the International Institute for Peace and Development Studies (Thailand).

Dr. Daryn is a social anthropologist (Ph.D. Cambridge 2002), with expertise on the culture, society, history, and politics of South Asia. His acquaintance with South Asia spans over 36 years, including 18 years of living in Nepal and India. Dr. Daryn’s experience includes prolonged spells of fieldwork and research in Nepal, as well as work in various international organisations there. As a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (The University of London, 2003-6) Dr. Daryn  also taught the MA course: “The Anthropology of South Asia”. He became closely acquainted with asylum seekers, including Bangladeshis, Burmese, Tibetans, Sri Lankan and Pakistanis, while working in UNHCR’s Kathmandu office (Nepal) during 2008-9 as an Associate Durable Solutions Officer. In this capacity Dr. Daryn went through UNHCR’s Country of Origin information on south asian countries, read in detail many private refugee files, and became familiar with the RSD process. Furthermore, Dr. Daryn also conducted focus group discussions and interviews with many refugees, and held detailed discussions with them. Since then, he has been focusing on the study of human rights in South Asian countries. From 2005 onwards, Dr. Daryn has served as an Expert Witness in… Read more

C. Christine Fair is a Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate at the United States Institute of Peace.  Her most recent book is In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2018/2019).  She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books, including Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War (Oxford University Press); Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents (Oxford University Press, 2014); Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (Routledge, 2010); Treading on Hallowed Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (Oxford University Press, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), and The Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Globe Pequot, 2008), among others.  

She is a member of Women in International Security, International Studies… Read more

Luke Heslop trained in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, earning a PhD in 2015, and was a Fellow at the London School of Economics prior to joining Brunel University as a Lecturer in Anthropology. He has worked for many years in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. His ethnographic work engages with the lived experience of macro-economic and political change and global challenges in emerging economies.

He is a Director for the Policy Research Institute of South Asia (PRISA), based in London, UK, working on issues concerning inequality, well-being, and access to services for diaspora communities in the UK. He is also co-Director of the Brunel South Asia Studies Research Group, a multidisciplinary research group based in West London, focusing, among other things, on the large South Asian population in the West London region.

Luke Heslop is the lead anthropological consultant for Dar al Handasah, with research work focusing predominantly in the Middle East. Additionally, he is the Producer and Co-Producer of The Migration Menu, a podcast series that explores migration stories from South Asia to the UK through food.

Region Covered: South & Central Asia — including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.

Country Witness Expert on South & Central Asia, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan.

Get a Sample Report, Expert CV, and Free Consultation.
Responds to inquiries within 1 hour and delivers reports within 1 week.
Adheres to the minimum rate that meets Legal Aid requirements.

Expert at the international agency The Human Rights:
We provide expert witness reports for asylum cases worldwide, covering human rights violations, political persecution, and systemic oppression. Our reports are trusted by lawyers, courts, and immigration authorities in the UK, USA, Canada, and the EU.

Frederica Jansz is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the UK. She is a journalist and writer who specializes on political, gender violence, and social justice issues. She was formerly the Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Sunday Leader’ newspaper in Sri Lanka and has over two decades of experience as a war correspondent, an investigative journalist, and frequent commentator on human rights abuses and war crimes. She covered Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict for two decades often reporting from the battle front. She has actively participated in journalist safety training and skills building exercises in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. She was also a television host and anchor on weekly shows that focused on news, current affairs and social justice issues during her two-decade long career as a journalist in Sri Lanka. She continues to be seen as an authority on press freedoms in South Asia, speaking at global venues and being interviewed for television audiences.

The Expert is an internationally renowned and award-winning academic and consultant specialising in violence against women and minorities, and racial and religious persecution in the South Asia and Muslim majority countries.

Mayilvaganan, M., PhD is an Independent Analyst and Director of Center for Human Security and International Affairs (CHSIA). His research interests focus on political, strategic and security issues concerning South and Southeast Asia, Indo-Pacific region, Borderlands and the Non-Traditional Security Issues. 

Prior to this, Dr. Mayil was an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India, where he oversaw research projects on the Indo-Pacific, Borderland studies, Non-Traditional Security Challenges (such as Migration, Refugees, Climate Change, & Public Health, etc.), Human Rights & Humanitarian Issues, and World Politics in general. He was also a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, India, where he taught South Asia in International Relations, Modern Warfare, and International Politics. Other positions he held included Associate Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), New Delhi, India, with a focus on Sri Lanka, and Research Associate at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi, India, with an emphasis on Kashmir. Additionally, he spent sometime as a researcher in Canada and the U.S.. 

He holds a PhD degree from the School of… Read more

The Expert is a Gender & Social Inclusion International Development specialist across multiple global south countries - She holds a Ph.D. in Gender & Postcolonial Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, 2005.

The Expert is an experienced senior consultant and academic with 15+ years in educational program design and management across humanitarian and development sectors, including democracy, education, civil society, and government collaboration in diverse global regions. Her expertise in creating effective development programs with a focus on inclusion and sustainable livelihoods.

The Expert has completed over 3,000 expert witness reports on Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Malaysia since 2005, primarily for the UK courts but also in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.  This has also included cases on terrorism and extradition. Oral expert evidence in all recent Sri Lankan Country Guidance cases from LP (2007) to KK & RS (2020).

Most recent one month research visit to Sri Lanka in March 2022 (Northern and Eastern Provinces).  It is usual to visit Sri Lanka and select countries in Asia each year for at least a month.  Strong emphasis on fieldwork and interviews with officials and in-country experts and focus upon risk and vulnerability on return.

Also, expertise on India, especially Tamil Nadu and Khalistan and LGBTQ issues generally.  Recent expert witness on high profile extradition cases in Hong Kong, London and New York.  Research visits to India, Pakistan and Malaysia are planned for 2023. 

Extensive field work and publications record in India from 1983, including my PhD on India’s defence industry and security sector (1988) and two year tenure at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies/United Nations University (Delhi) (1983-85).

Expert witness research trip planned for… Read more

The Expert is a Barrister-at-Law of England and Wales. The Expert is a practicing Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He holds the position of Head of Chambers at "Justice for All', with nearly a decade's experience in legal practice. The expert regularly moves before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh for various matters including Writ (Judicial Review), Criminal and Civil Appeal and Revision, Bail Petition, Intellectual Property, Company Matter, Inheritance, Public Interest Litigation, Muslim Personal Law,  Succession Law,  Hindu Law, etc.

Parallel to his legal pursuits, the expert is the Legal Affairs and Political Editor of The Daily Campus and columnist. Accumulatively, he possesses over 18 years of sustained experience as a Journalist in Bangladesh, having written extensively on a broad range of issues, including human rights, the criminal justice system, politics, education, health, mental health, and international laws.

The Expert is an academic specialist in the politics and international relations of South Asia, & the Middle East with almost two decades of experience studying the region. The Expert has conducted research, advisory, and consultancy work in Bangladesh on the formal and informal justice systems, freedom of speech and… Read more