Experts on countries of origin by country

A strategic and results-oriented humanitarian expert with a proven ability to lead high-impact programmes, strengthen institutions, manage complex donor portfolios, and support governments and civil society in delivering sustainable humanitarian and development outcomes. Combines technical excellence with practical field experience, strong leadership, and a collaborative approach to achieving measurable results across the Middle East.

My expertise encompasses humanitarian affairs, public policy, migration, education, community resilience, religious and ethnic diversity, civil society development, international cooperation, and stakeholder engagement, with extensive knowledge of the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics shaping emerging and developing regions. Through research, policy analysis, and community-focused initiatives, I have contrubted to advancing sustainable development, social inclusion, intercultural dialogue, institutional capacity building, and regional cooperation, while leading forthcoming research on governance reform, development partnerships, educational transformation, migration trends, and socioeconomic development.

Independent country conditions researcher and humanitarian affairs specialist with extensive professional experience in humanitarian programmes, community-based research, displacement, social vulnerability and conflict-affected environments.

Her work focuses on the humanitarian and social circumstances of individuals and communities across Iraq and the wider Middle East, including the impact of conflict, forced displacement, gender-related vulnerabilities, social discrimination and barriers to protection.

Areas of specialist interest include the circumstances of women and children, ethnic and religious minorities, internally displaced persons, returnees, and individuals facing difficulties accessing essential services or establishing sustainable livelihoods.

Drawing on professional experience in humanitarian operations, field research, monitoring, evaluation and community engagement, she provides independent contextual analysis relevant to asylum, immigration and human rights proceedings.

Her approach emphasises evidence-based research, cultural understanding and objective assessment of the social, humanitarian and institutional conditions relevant to individual cases.

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.

Hussein Ali is an independent Country Expert and Expert Witness specialising in country conditions across the Middle East. He provides independent expert reports and litigation support in asylum, immigration and human rights proceedings before UK courts and tribunals. His work focuses on assessing country conditions, evaluating risk on return, examining the availability of state protection, and analysing the social, political, legal and humanitarian circumstances relevant to individuals seeking international protection.

His expertise covers persecution arising from political opinion, religion, ethnicity, gender, family and tribal dynamics, together with the treatment of vulnerable individuals including women, children, victims of trafficking, survivors of honour-based violence, forced marriage, organised criminal activity and extremist organisations. His reports are individually researched, evidence-based and prepared objectively in accordance with the overriding duty of an independent Expert Witness to assist the Court or Tribunal.

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

Dr. Patrick Christian is a psychoanalytic anthropologist with a doctorate in the psychopathology of ethnic and cultural violence. He has spent the past 36 years conducting field research in Eurasia, Southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, the Horn of Africa, the Central Sahel, the Andean Mountains, the Amazon Basin, and Mesoamerica, as part of military, diplomatic, and humanitarian interventions in violent intra-state conflicts. With the exceptions of India, Iran and Russia, Dr Christian has personally lived in and/or worked in each country he specialises in.

Dr. Christian is a member of the American Anthropological Association’s Society for Psychological Anthropology and the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, Race, Conflict, and Violence.

Dr Christian’s work applies anthropology, psychology, and sociology to curate scientific understanding of specific subject communities’ lived-experiences – mentally and emotionally. His reporting illuminates the underlying psychosocial-emotional motivations behind individual and collective behaviour, both post-mortem and predictive of violent conflict.

Dr Christian’s field research focuses on civil-conflict… Read more

Dr. Shaul Gabbay completed a BA at Bar Ilan University and an MA at Tel-Aviv University. In 1991 he received a Presidential Fellowship from the U.S. to continue his studies. In 1995 he completed the PhD program at Columbia University in New York and received an invitation from the University of Chicago for a Post Doctoral program. In 1998 Dr. Gabbay returned to Israel to join the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Professor Gabbay joined the University of Denver as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies in 2001- 2010.  He continued his research at DU as a Senior Scholar until 2015 when he was appointed Director of the Global Research Institute.

His areas of expertise include Middle East cultures and societal norms,   Middle East conflicts, and human rights issues existing in Muslim societies.  He is regularly cited and acts as a commentator in national and international media such as the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, FOX and MSNBC.

Academic with expertise on many countries in the Middle East; has extensive experience providing expert reports, including nationality assessment and document authentication reports.

The Expert is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics and International Relations of the Middle East. 

Ali Kozad is a highly experienced Country Expert with over fifteen years' experience in government, diplomacy, public administration and international affairs. Drawing upon extensive first-hand experience advising on political systems, governance, state institutions and public policy, he provides independent expert reports for solicitors, barristers, tribunals and courts.

His expertise includes country conditions, political developments, government structures, public administration, diplomatic practice, civil documentation, nationality matters, state institutions and international relations. He accepts instructions in asylum, immigration, nationality, deportation, judicial review, public law and civil proceedings requiring expert evidence on country conditions and governmental matters.

His reports are impartial, evidence-based and prepared in accordance with the duties of an independent expert witness.

I am an international practitioner working across Africa and the Middle East, supporting complex cross-border and regional matters. My work is grounded in practical experience, cultural awareness, and careful judgment in sensitive situations.

Lebanese lawyer, admitted to the Beirut Bar Association in 2016, with more than ten years of litigation before every level of the Lebanese courts. Her country evidence work rests on that practice: the confessional personal status system and what it means for women and children, civil registry and identity records, and the point at which state protection stops working.

Dr Imranali Panjwani has lived, studied and worked in the UK, Middle East, East-Africa and Australia as an academic, lawyer, chaplain and community worker. He has written 200+ country experts reports for asylum seekers under the instructions of UK and international law firms. His reports have been commented upon by judges and lawyers and draw upon his diverse legal, cultural and religious experiences.

For his access to justice work in immigration and asylum he received the national Spirit in the Community award at the GG2 Leadership & Diversity Awards in 2025 and Highly Commended Access to Justice award at the UK Diversity Legal Awards in 2021.

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 "LexAria and Jurists" (link: https://lexariaandjurists.com/), 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.

As a practicing Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and Journalist, the expert is capable to verify any legal documents, including cases, GDs, judgments, and other relevant documents, and check records from the government offices of Bangladesh, including Courts and Tribunals, unless restricted by law or the relevant office. 

Parallel to his legal pursuits, the expert is the Legal Affairs and Political Editor of The Daily Campus and a 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,… Read more

Dr. Abduslam Zagud is a British-Libyan expert witness specialising in Arab socio-political affairs, Islamic law, tribal and community dynamics, and international human rights. He holds a doctorate in General International Law and brings over 17 years of combined academic, professional, and lived experience across the Arab world to his expert practice. Dr Zagud holds an intensive research experience on international public law, international human rights law, international relations and immigration law. 

As a Libyan national who has lived, studied, and worked across multiple Arab countries, and who maintains active community ties in the United Kingdom, Dr. Zagud occupies an unusual position among country experts: he shares the language, culture, religious traditions, and social frameworks of the people he writes about. This enables a depth of insight that goes beyond conventional desk research. Arab nationals speak candidly with him, update him on conditions on the ground, and provide the kind of nuanced, lived detail that is rarely accessible to an outside observer.

He is a Full Member of the SOAS Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Centre and holds Law Society accreditation as a Supervising Senior Caseworker in Immigration and Asylum Law. He works… Read more