'I still find it shocking that parents are taken away from their children for immigration detention purposes when it is clearly in the best interests of the child to be looked after by their mum or dad.’ - Elli
Elli, our Legal Manager in the family team, qualified in immigration law in 2007 and has been heading up the team at BID for the last six years. She works hard to get bail for parents so they can be reunited with their children and feels privileged to do this with the help of two extremely competent law graduate volunteers, Araniya and Elena as well as Nick the legal caseworker. Elli has 14 years of experience in the sector having worked at the Refugee Council, Save the Children and the Refugee Legal Centre before coming to BID.
A law graduate with an MA in Human Rights, Nick initially came to BID as a volunteer and combined three days’ a week volunteering at BID with two days a week working with ‘high-risk’ offenders, and victims of crime at Surrey & Sussex Probation Trust. While volunteering at BID, he studied asylum and immigration law, passing his Level 3 accreditation with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) in April 2012. He was appointed as part-time Legal Caseworker with the family team in June 2013.
“In the vast majority of our cases the detention of parents is unnecessary, inappropriate, and only serves to punish children" - Nick
BID’s Christmas 2014 appeal, ‘Free for Christmas’, highlighted the work done by BID’s legal managers, our trained and accredited volunteer legal caseworkers, and the barristers who generously give their time to work pro bono to seek the release of parents separated by immigration detention from their children.
Please help BID to continue this essential work by making a donation HERE.
- £5 would cover freepost charges for letters to BID from ten parents being held in prison.
- £10 could pay the fee for BID to obtain the IRC medical records of one detained parent.
- £50 would cover the cost of one training course for a legal manager to gain some of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points required each year to remain accredited to give immigration legal advice.
For further information contact [email protected]
