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Public law director Ahmed Aydeed provides ILPA training on trafficking and modern slavery (15 October 2019)

Date: 15/10/2019
Duncan Lewis, Main Solicitors, Public law director Ahmed Aydeed provides ILPA training on trafficking and modern slavery

Last week (9th October) Birmingham-based public law director Ahmed Aydeed took part in the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) training session on trafficking and modern slavery.

Funded by the Penningtons Manches Charitable Foundation, the aim of the session was to provide an update on the issues faced when representing victims of trafficking and modern slavery in their immigration matters.

Held in Birmingham, Ahmed, along with Samantha Knights QC, of Matrix Chambers acted as the tutors to an audience of legal practitioners each with an intermediate degree of experience and knowledge of the legal challenges surrounding victims of trafficking and modern slavery.
Topics included the identification process of victims of trafficking and slavery, asylum and the NRM (National Referral Mechanism), issues in deportation appeals, the unlawful detention of victims, and the crossover with public law.

With his experience in this area of law, those in attendance could not have asked for a better tutor than Ahmed to provide them with first-hand expertise and insight into modern slavery and human trafficking.

Earlier this year, Ahmed was invited to give oral evidence at the Home Affairs Committee’s Modern Slavery Inquiry in the House of Commons in Westminster, where he discussed the extent and appropriateness of the detention of victims, the reasons for their detention, and the consequences of detention for the individuals. The session also looked into the adequacy of Government policies surrounding victims of trafficking and modern slavery, something Ahmed himself challenged as part of his on-going fight against human trafficking and slavery.

The work Ahmed has carried out in the last few months alone has had major implications for victims of trafficking and slavery with his recent challenge to the Home Office’s policy that cut off all statutory support to slavery victims in the UK after just 45 days being a success. The Home Office ultimately conceded that their 45-day policy was unlawful and that support should be available regardless of how long that individual has been supported.

Ahmed’s work has received significant recent recognition with the charity Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT UK) shortlisting him for their Children’s Champion Award, and an additional shortlisting for the Outstanding Contribution to the Fight Against Slavery award in the Enabling and Supporting Survivors’ Rights and Entitlements category at the Human Trafficking Foundation’s annual Anti-Slavery Day Awards.

The ILPA training session was a success and Ahmed’s training will doubtlessly have a huge impact on the understanding and approach taken by those legal practitioners who took part in the session. Those in attendance included a number of lawyers from Duncan Lewis including Amrit Singh, Eleanor Hanmer, Michael ODonohoe, Primisha Chudasama, and Tamsin Hope of the Birmingham public law team, and Maria Poleo from the immigration team at Birmingham.



About Ahmed Aydeed

Ahmed is the director of public law at the Birmingham & Milton Keynes branches of Duncan Lewis Solicitors. He specialises in public and human rights law, predominantly acting for refugees, and trafficking and modern slavery victims in legally aided public law challenges. His core area of practice concerns administrative detention, international protection, and equality & discrimination. Ahmed has led key public law challenges against the administrative detention of refugees, torture and trafficking victims. He has also acted in leading cases on the Detained Fast Track rules, healthcare provisions in immigration detention, criminal injuries compensation and support and assistance for victims of human trafficking.

In 2018 Ahmed was shortlisted for Partner of the Year at the Birmingham Law Society Legal Awards and was ‘Highly Commended’ for Human Rights Lawyer of the Year at the 2018 Law Society Excellence Awards. In 2017 he won Junior Lawyer of the Year at the Law Society Excellence Awards.

To contact Ahmed, call 020 7275 2668 or email ahmeda@duncanlewis.com


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