On this page, you will find:
To find organisations working for LGBTQI+ rights, visit our Saudi Arabia LGBTQI+ Resources page.
To find organisations providing legal or other types of assistance to refugees in Saudi Arabia, visit our Saudi Arabia Legal Assistance page.
COI Experts
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.
Tel: +1 (310) 506-4416
Email: bjejudge@aol.com
Judge Einhorn is a member of the ABA National Commission on Immigration and a Lifetime National Commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League. He does extensive work on Egypt, Saudi Arabia (e.g., gays and Shiites there), Syria, Yemen, and Jordan.
Tel: +44 20 76 04 30 27
Email: email@georgejoffe.com
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), EuropeAid and the new External Action Service.
Email: hughmiles@alshafiemiles.com
Hugh Miles has acted as an expert witness and authenticated Arabic language documents in more than 150 asylum cases in the UK, Europe and N America. He lives in Cairo.
Hugh is the director of Al Shafie Miles, a business intelligence consultancy specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on a network of highly experienced former UK foreign office officials and other experts, Al Shafie Miles helps its clients develop their strategic and commercial interests in the Arab world. ( www.alshafiemiles.com ). Further, he is the founder of Arab Digest, a private members club offering expert commentary and analysis on the Middle East and North Africa. Arab Digest has around 450 elite members worldwide, including decision-makers in business and politics, people in the British FCO and other foreign ministries, as well as others in the media, the academic world, energy industry etc. Business subscribers who find Arab Digest useful include blue-chip names such as Barclays, HSBC, BP, Chevron and BAE. ( www.ArabDigest.org )
Hugh is a freelance investigative journalist specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. He has worked with a wide variety of international media including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, CNBC, Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, London Review of Books, Mirror, Express, Sun, and others. His journalism has appeared on the front pages of the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and New York Times newspapers and he has written, produced and presented radio and TV programmes for the BBC and Al Jazeera English. He is the author of two books, ‘Al Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World’ (published Jan 2005) and ‘Playing Cards in Cairo’ (April 2008). He has contributed to several other publications. Since 2005 Hugh has been a Contributing Editor of the American University in Cairo’s media journal.
Email: rebwar@mideastconsultancy.com/ 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.
Email: gabbay@muslimworldexpert.com
Dr Shaul Gabbay acts as a resource for immigration attorneys seeking advice, counsel and expert testimony in asylum cases. Formerly the Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the University of Denver, he has published extensively on cultures and customs in all Muslim countries, persecution issues based on family dishonor, gender and homosexuality, and sociology and politics of the Muslim world. Professor Gabbay’s expertise helps immigration attorneys and judges understand key societal issues and trends in the Muslim world that have life-threatening repercussions for Muslim immigrants throughout the U.S. at risk of deportation. His oral testimony and written analysis draws on his extensive knowledge and examination of cultural practices in Muslim countries as well as his life experience growing up in the Middle East. More information is on his website: www.muslimworldexpert.com.
Email: zubair.iqbal45@gmail.com
Dr. Zubair Iqbal is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and has coordinated projects on the factors underlying the democratic movement in the Arab world, and outlook for the future. Prior to joining the MEI in 2008, Dr. Zubair Iqbal worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for thirty-five years, retiring in 2007 as Assistant Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department. Before joining the IMF, Iqbal worked as Senior Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Islamabad University, Islamabad, Pakistan. At the IMF, Iqbal held multiple postings ranging from those for the development of macroeconomic and exchange and trade policies for adjustment and growth in member countries, strategies for IMF-member country relations, design of adjustment programs for the balance of payments assistance and technical support. During the last two decades at IMF, Dr. Iqbal’s primary focus was on the Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries, including as mission leader to 16 countries, both oil producers and oil importers. In addition to operational work, Iqbal conducted and guided research in trade policy issues, role and effectiveness of foreign aid, external debt, Islamic banking and finance, regional integration (primarily in the Middle East), and transition from oil dependence to more diversified economies. In the process, he wrote or edited 5 books and over forty articles in the IMF and external research publications. He also served as senior advisor to the Saudi Arabian Executive Director to the IMF.
COI Resources
The following sections contain resources that can be consulted when looking for country of origin information.
Saudi Arabia: Gender-based Violence and Treatment of Atheists, Asylos (2023) – Download upon registration
Saudi Arabia Legal Assistance
Find organisations offering legal and other types of assistance to refugees in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia LGBTQI+ Resources
Find organisations working for refugee LGBTQI+ rights in Saudi Arabia.
We are always looking to expand the resources on our platform. If you know about relevant experts, or you are aware of organisations and/or resources to include in our directories, please get in touch.
Last updated October 2023