Email: arg1@compuserve.com

Dr George is a consultant, writer and journalist, with extensive knowledge of the Middle East. Since 1984 he has worked as a freelance journalist, researcher and expert witness in political asylum cases involving the Middle East. He frequently commentates on Middle Eastern affairs for radio and television, and contributes to the Observer, the Independent and the Guardian. He is a former Head of Research at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce and a former Assistant Director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). Since 2003, Dr George has acted as an Expert Witness for UK, US and European asylum and immigration tribunals, dealing with cases involving Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and has produced some 4,000 reports.

Email: email@georgejoffe.com
Tel: +44 20 76 04 30 27
Skype: george.joffe

Professor Joffé is prepared to provide country of origin experts witness statements for Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morroco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. He is now retired but is still affiliated to the London Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Until 2017, Professor Joffé was an affiliated lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) in the University of Cambridge, where he also ran the Centre for North African Studies. From 2005 to 2010, he was a research fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. From 1997 to 2000, Professor Joffé was the deputy-director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He regularly addresses professional audiences at the NATO Defence College in Rome, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Geneva, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and NOREF in Oslo and the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He has also advised the European Commission (DG Relex), EuropAid and the new External Action Service.

Email: hasan.hafidh29@gmail.com

Dr Hasan Hafidh is an academic and expert analyst specialising in Middle East Politics and International Relations having served various roles as a Teaching and Visiting Fellow at King’s College London, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) and the University of Leeds. He has vast experience as an expert witness and document examiner of all issues in his cited specialist areas of expertise, most notably in immigration, asylum and human rights cases for clients and appellants coming from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

Dr Hafidh provides document verification and authentication services of formal and semi-formal Arabic documents. He also focuses on handwriting, handwriting characteristics, tampering, alterations, disputed documents and translation experience, alongside observing criminal documents.

Dr Hafidh is a member of the National Handwriting Association (NHA) as well as a member of the British Institute of Graphologists (BIG). He is obtaining further qualifications with Reed Hayes and the Scientific Association of Forensic Examiners (SAFE) in the near future. Some of Dr Hasan’s publications include: “Civic Space and Sectarianism in GCC States: Dynamics of ‘Informal’ Civil Society in Kuwait and Bahrain beyond State Institutions,” Fibiger, T and Hafidh, H in Studies of Ethnicity and Nationalism (SEN) Vol 19, Issue 1 (April 2019) & “Transnational Securitization of Identity: Distinctions between Securitization and ‘Othering’ of Shias in Bahrain and Pakistan,” co-authored paper with Dr Maryyum Mehmood in Global Discourse, Vol 9, No 4, November 2019.

Email: rebwar@mideastconsultancy.com  or info@mideastconsultancy.com

Dr Rebwar Fatah is the Director of the Middle East Consultancy Services. Dr Fatah has produced thousands of COI reports since he began working as an expert witness in 2000. In the past five years alone, Dr Fatah has produced 1,341 Expert Reports on the Middle East. These include:

• 830 Country Expert Reports
• 416 Document Authentication Reports
• 95 Nationality Reports

Dr Fatah’s reports have been commissioned for and cited in several immigration appeals, as well as family and criminal cases. Moreover, he has assessed many people from the Middle East whose nationality, native language, ethnicity, place of residence has been disputed, and has examined thousands of documents from the MENA region. In addition to a deep knowledge of the region’s administrative and bureaucratic cultures, Dr Fatah’s multilingual proficiencies enable him to understand, interpret and evaluate official documents in the Middle East. As a part of this work, Dr Fatah has produced his own methodology for document authentications and nationality examinations.

Dr Fatah has also provided written and oral evidence in court; among them are five Country Guidance Cases, two Turkish extradition orders and many other cases. Moreover, Dr Fatah has also reviewed and provided guidance on Home Office CPIN reports.

Dr Fatah regularly visits the Middle East, conducting fact-finding missions to ensure that his knowledge is up to date and based on reliable information. Dr Fatah speaks most of the Middle Eastern languages as well as their various dialects. Dr Fatah’s Country Expert Reports cover a wide range of issues, including the general security situation, sufficiency of protection, crimes of honour, healthcare, corruption, and at-risk groups of different sexual, religious, political and cultural profiles.