Home
Search
  • people

Bio

Sarah Singer is a Professor of Refugee Law at the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is an internationally recognised expert on criminality and asylum, and her contributions to the broader forced migration field include publications on European asylum law, humanitarian accountability, immigration detention and the protection of LGBT asylum seekers. She has led major collaborative interdisciplinary research projects, acted as expert commentator for various media outlets including BBC World News and is a recognised expert on postgraduate online education. She is inaugural Programme Director of the distance-learning MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies and co-convenes the ‘Refugees in the 21st Century’ MOOC (Coursera). 

Publications/recent projects:

  • ‘Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts: Five years on from the Grand Bargain’ (2021) 40(4) Refugee Survey Quarterly, co-authoed with Diana Martin and Bethan Mathias.
  • ‘Humanitarian Accountability in Displacement Contexts’ Special Issue (2021) 40(4) Refugee Survey Quarterly, co-edited with Diana Martin and Bethan Mathias
  • 2021 ‘How much of a Lesbian are you? Experiences of LGBT asylum seekers in immigration detention in the UK’ in R. Mole (ed), Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe (UCL Press, 2021), 238-276.
  • ‘Refugee Law and the War on Terror’ in S. Juss (ed) Research Handbook on International Refugee Law (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019).
  • ‘‘Desert Island’ Detention: Detainees’ Understandings of ‘Law’ in the UK’s Immigration Detention System’ (2019) 38(1) Refugee Survey Quarterly 1-29.
  • ‘National Security, Criminality and Exclusion from Refugee Protection under the EU Qualification Directive: Expanding the Grounds of Exclusion by the Back Door’ (2018) 32(3) Journal of Immigration, Asylum and  Nationality Law 284-300.
  • ‘Undesirable and Unreturnable Migrants in the United Kingdom’ (2017) 36(1) Refugee Survey Quarterly 9–34.
  • ‘Migration Law and Policy: 'Undesirable and Unreturnable' Aliens Symposium (2017) 36(1) Refugee Survey Quarterly, co-edited with Joris van Wijk, David James Cantor and Maarten Bolhuis.
  • Criminal Justice and “Undesirable” Aliens Special Issue (2017) 15(1) Journal of International Criminal Justice, co-edited with Joris van Wijk, David James Cantor and Maarten Bolhuis.
  • ‘No Safe Refuge: Experiences of LGBT asylum seekers in detention’, (field researcher), Stonewall and the UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (October 2016).
  • ‘Undesirable and Unreturnable? Policy challenges around excluded asylum seekers and other migrants suspected of serious criminality who cannot be removed’, Refugee Law Initiative (University of London) and Centre for Criminal Justice (VU University Amsterdam), co-authored with Joris van Wijk, David Cantor and Maarten Bolhuis (May 2016).
  • Terrorism and Exclusion from Refugee Status in the UK: Asylum Seekers Suspected of Serious Criminality, Queen Mary Studies in International Law vol. 18, Brill; Martinus Nijhoff (May 2015).
  • Seeking Asylum in the European Union: Selected Protection Issues Raised by the Second Phase of the Common European Asylum System, International Refugee Law Book Series, (Brill; Martinus Nijhoff, 2015), co-edited with Céline Bauloz, Meltem Ineli Ciger and Vladislava Stoyanova.
  • ‘Terrorism and Article 1F(c) of the Refugee Convention: Exclusion from refugee status in the United Kingdom’ (2014) 12(5) Journal of International Criminal Justice 1075-1091.
  • Reservations to International Treaties Special Issue (2014) 16(3) International Community Law Review 259-261, co-edited with Malgosia Fitzmaurice
  • ‘Exclusion from Refugee Status: asylum seekers and terrorism in the UK’ (2012) 1 Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights Working Papers Series 1-15.
  • ‘Exclusion from Refugee Status and Terrorist-related Offences: the case of AH (Algeria)’ (2012) 26(4) Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 337-348.