Navigating migration

For people arriving in the UK as migrants and asylum seekers, the requirement to navigate the legalities of employment, education, housing, and detention are both monumental and vital to survival and settlement in the UK.

Join the panel to discuss the realities of migrants and asylum seekers as they negotiate their rights to work, study, and live in the country.

Chair: Paul Sweeney MSP, Convener, Cross-Party Group on Migration

Panellists:

Graham O'Neill is Policy Manager with Scottish Refugee Council. He has campaigned for human rights for over 20 years, mainly in anti-racism and rights for refugees and trafficking survivors. Previously he drafted the Private Members Bill, with Jenny Marra MSP, for a Human Trafficking Act for Scotland, which led formally and directly to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015.  

Karin Goodwin is an investigative journalist and co-editor of The Ferret. Specialisms include migration, health inequalities and other social issues. Past roles include reporting for the Sunday Times, the Sunday Herald and the Sunday National and she has contributed to outlets from the Guardian and the Independent to inews and Vice. She was the reporter for a documentary in co-production with The Ferret and BBC Scotland’s Disclosure and has worked on radio and film projects.  

Pinar Aksu is the Human Rights and Advocacy Coordinator at Maryhill Integration Network. Pinar coordinates the MIN Voices group and campaigns, including right to work: lift the ban, free bus pass, and access to education. She also develops educational outreach projects, facilitates talks, and supports research projects with relevant partners. Pinar is also a second year PhD student at the University of Glasgow, researching Art and Law in Migration: art practices for social change and access to justice. 

Andy Sirel is a co-founding Partner and Legal Director at JustRight Scotland.  Andy also heads the Scottish Refugee & Migrant Centre.  He has been working in human rights law since 2010.  Andy works directly with migrant children and young people, with a particular specialism in working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and child victims of trafficking. He represents migrant children in the national asylum and trafficking identification procedures, the immigration and asylum tribunals, and in Judicial Reviews in the Court of Session.