Our staff
Ophélie Allard
Ophélie joined in February 2025 to support the delivery of our fundraising strategy, with an emphasis on Individual giving. She is a member of the EU Citizen's Campaigns network and has previously worked as the Fundraising coordinator for a regional refugee charity.
Ayesha Aziz
Ayesha Aziz joined in 2022, she is a practicing solicitor with over 8 years of Post Qualification Experience in immigration law. Ayesha is also qualified as a Level 2 Senior Caseworker and Supervisor under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme.
Dane
Dane leads on growing, developing and delivering services offering practical and emotional support to LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum. His previous role was in the Leaving Care Team (Medway Social Services) and before that he was the Wellbeing Service Manager for the London Irish Centre.
Ro Carter
Ro is one of our part time LGBTQI+ Casework Coordinators. They have previous experience working in informal camps at borders across Europe, as well as providing advice and advocacy for UASC arriving in the UK. They identify as Queer, Transfeminine and use They/Them pronouns.
Cathy Jaquiss
Cathy joined Rainbow Migration in March 2025 as a Legal Officer. She is a barrister specialising in immigration and asylum law, with a particular interest in LGBTQI+ asylum law. Cathy is currently in the final stages of her PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University, which relates to the litigation of LGBTQ+ asylum claims.
Sara Makhmudova
Sara joined in December 2024 to assist the Communications and Campaigns managers. She has previously worked in a charity supporting people with mental health issues and been part of several climate change and human rights campaigns. She is bilingual in Russian and English.
Carla MG
Carla joined in 2021 to lead and deliver Rainbow Migration’s external communications. She previously worked in similar positions at Cripplegate Foundation and the International Detention Coalition. She is from Barcelona and holds an MA in International Journalism.
Lauren McCabe
Lauren joined in 2022 to lead Rainbow Migration’s fundraising functions. She is a qualified fundraiser through the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and has experience of working in a range of fundraising and communications roles in the charity sector.
Stuart Meyers
Stuart is one of the Casework Coordinators at Rainbow Migration. He joined the team in 2020 and has experience working in charity, local authority, and legal settings providing emotional and practical support to a range of service users. He has an MA in Refugee Care.
Lisa
Lisa joined our team at Rainbow Migration in October 2024. She has worked as a caseworker, has a background in community building and advocacy for with migrant and Queer communities in London.
Darianna Olin
Darianna joined the team in November 2024 as a Legal Officer. She is a practising solicitor specialising in immigration and human rights law, and holds an LLM in Professional Legal Practice focusing on ECHR Article 3, 6 and 8 rights. She speaks English, French and Russian.
Minesh Parekh
Minesh joined the team in March 2024 to coordinate Policy and Public Affairs work. He has a background working in charity, political and public sector organisations, and previously worked as a Researcher for a Member of Parliament.
Em
Em joined Rainbow Migration in 2025 as one of our part-time casework coordinators. They have a background of years in LGBTQIA+ support work, and they identify as queer and non-binary. They hold a bachelor’s degree in languages focusing on Spanish and Italian, and a Master’s degree in Children’s Literature.
Amy Stubbs
Amy joined Rainbow Migration in June 2022 to manage all operations, office systems and processes to support the delivery of our mission. Amy has worked in business management for over 15 years in multiple organisations and industry sectors.
Joe
Joe provides administrative support.
Brigitta Varga
Brigitta joined Rainbow Migration as a Legal and Support Services Assistant in January 2024. She has experience working with refugees from varied backgrounds and was a casework volunteer in the South West before moving to London.
Emma
Emma joined Rainbow Migration in 2021 to lead on developing public-facing campaigns involving LGBTQI+ people with lived experience of the UK asylum system. They previously held similar roles at St Mungo’s, Age UK and Parkinson’s UK.
Leila Zadeh
Leila Zadeh previously worked at Frontline AIDS, Oxfam GB and ActionAid EU. She speaks English, Farsi/Persian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Leila came to the UK as part of a refugee family when she was 13 months old.
Our trustees
Scott Addison
A marketing and communications professional with more than 20 years of experience across the full spectrum of communications, PR, brand and stakeholder relations, Scott holds a MBA from Cass Business School – City, University of London.
Charles Bishop
Charles is a barrister at Landmark Chambers specialising in public and planning law. Prior to coming to the Bar, he worked at the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association and Wesley Gryk Solicitors. He previously volunteered at Stonewall Housing and the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit.
Mike Egan
Mike is a former partner and Head of London Audit at UHY Hacker Young, an international firm of Chartered Accountants. He also holds a Master’s degree in Voluntary Sector Management from The Business School (City, University of London).
Emma Finch
Emma currently leads the trusts and foundations team at Liberty. She brings 13 years’ experience working for organisations in the human rights sector, holds an MA in international relations and a degree in human rights and journalism.
Alexander Lyons
Alexander is co-Founder of Held, building relational skills and cultural practices for collective liberation. He has a background in anti-oppression learning design and facilitation, organisational culture consultancy and strategic communications.
Ilaria Michelis
Ilaria is a researcher and independent consultant focusing on gender-based violence, safeguarding and LGBTQI+ inclusion in humanitarian responses. She lived in East Africa and the Middle East where she worked with international NGOs and the United Nations. Ilaria is currently completing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
Hadeel
Hadeel has over 5 years’ experience working and volunteering with organisations working with refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK. They have specialise in the area of youth and lived experience involvment. They hold an MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity from the University of Essex.
Hussein Said
Hussein is a solicitor at Asylum Justice and is accredited as a Level 2 Senior Caseworker under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme (OISC Level 3). He is also founder and Director of The LGBTQ+ Law Clinic and a member of the Trans Equality Legal Initiative (TELI). Hussein previously worked at Freedom From Torture.
Tanishtha SenGupta
Tanishtha manages partnerships at Access - the foundation for social investment. She has over seven years’ experience fostering collaborative networks within the equality and human rights, and social investment sectors. Tanishtha’s focus is on building financial resilience and embedding best practices within social investment, fostering a more equitable space for micro to small user-led organisations. She also holds Master’s degrees in Human Rights and Refugee Studies.