Our team
Our staff
Ayesha Aziz
Ayesha Aziz joined in 2022, as our Legal Officer, 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 Buckley
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.
Claire Fletcher
Claire has been with Rainbow Migration since 2018 and is one of the LGBTQI+ Asylum Support Workers within the Support Service Team. She has worked and volunteered for various NGOs advocating for the rights of refugees for the past eight years.
Laurie Hartley
Laurie has been one of our part-time LGBTQI+ Asylum Seeker Support Workers since June 2019. They identify as queer and trans non-binary, and use the gender pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’.
Sonia Lenegan
Sonia has been a qualified solicitor for over a decade. She has previously worked at Duncan Lewis, the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit, and Hackney Community Law Centre. Prior to joining Rainbow Migration, Sonia was the Legal Director at the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA).
Carla Manso
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 Support Workers 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.
Joe
Joe provides administrative support.
Emma Webb
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.
Bojana Asanovic
Bojana has been a barrister since 2000. She is a member of Garden Court Chambers and practises in asylum immigration, nationality and human rights. Prior to coming to the English Bar, Bojana was a current affairs journalist in former Yugoslavia.
Kiki Banadzem
Emily Kinaka Banadzem, better known as Bandy Kiki, is an LGBTQI+ rights activist and entrepreneur.
Charles Bishop
Charles is a barrister at Landmark Chambers specialising in public, planning and property 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.
Eddie Bruce-Jones
Eddie is Deputy Dean at Birkbeck School of Law and Head of the Law Department at Birkbeck, University of London, where he is a Reader in Law and Anthropology. He is Associate Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.
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.
Usman Gul
Usman Gul is a former refugee and a passionate supporter of LGBTQI+ rights, especially of the BAME community. He works as a project manager for a bank and runs a travel blog discussing on LGBTQI+ travel and his experiences travelling around.
Nina Nasim
Nina is a trans woman who worked for Rainbow Migration (then UKLGIG) for two years as an LGBTQI+ Asylum Seeker Support Worker, supporting many and helping create the first support group specifically for trans asylum seekers.
Jackie Peirce
Jackie is a solicitor with 20 years’ experience in asylum and immigration. She was a partner in a private practice, a legal advisor at Freedom from Torture and a migrant support centre and was previously Legal Aid convenor for the Immigration Law Practitioner’s Association on legal aid issues.