The Expert has expertise on forced displacement and migration in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean and the links with gang violence, organised crime and corruption in the region. For the last ten years they have conducted academic and professional research on migration and internal displacement linked to violence, criminal groups and impunity in Central America and Mexico and on human trafficking in the broader region of Latin America and Caribbean, making several fieldwork trips and authoring NGOs reports and academic articles. I also have expertise in gender issues in the region, including gender-based violence, LGBTQ+ discrimination and hate crimes, and access to abortion and reproductive rights.
The Expert is a human rights researcher who specialises in forced displacement and migration in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean and an expert on gang violence, organised crime and corruption and impunity in the region.
The Expert currently works as a senior research consultant for NGOs and international organisations, specialising in forced displacement, mixed migration and human trafficking in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The Expert is affiliated to the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London and teach on the MA Refugee Protection and Forced Migration and on the MA in Securing & Understanding Human Rights at the University of London, School of Advanced Study.
Previously The Expert has been a co-director of the Central America Women’s Network and a deputy programme director at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat.
For the last ten years The Expert has conducted academic and professional research on human mobility, violence and criminal groups in the Northern Triangle of Central America and Mexico. The Expert's doctoral thesis was on the links between organised crime, violence and migration in the region and they have authored reports for NGOs and academic articles and made numerous conference presentations on this subject. Since 2015 they have conducted several fieldwork trips to Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean researching migration and displacement. This has included interviewing over 300 key informants (government officials, academic researchers, journalists and representatives of international agencies, humanitarian organisations, NGOs, civil society and human rights organisations, independent research centres, and LGBTQ+, women’s and indigenous groups) and over 100 people who had fled Central America in a refugee camp/migrant shelter in Mexico or who had been deported back to El Salvador. I therefore have expertise on the region and its displacement dynamics, forced displacement caused by gang violence, and the situation of poor state protection, insecurity and impunity.
The Expert also has expertise in gender concerns, including gender-based violence, LGBTQ+ issues and reproductive rights.
In the last 2 years The Expert has written 5 expert reports for UK asylum tribunals (all successful) and 2 for asylum applications in the USA.
Gang violence, GBV and hate crime in Central America: State response versus state responsibility, FMR 62, Oct 2019
An Atomised Crisis: Reframing internal displacement caused by crime and violence in El Salvador, IDMC, Sept 2018
Factors influencing decision making by people fleeing Central America, Forced Migration Review 56, Oct 2017
El Salvador in focus: The criminalisation of abortion, Central American Women’s Network, Sept 2015
Abortion in the Americas: Equality and Discrimination as Advocacy Tools Equal Rights Review 9, Sept 2012