I’m a freelance journalist focused on UK immigration and asylum.

My writing regularly appears in The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, OpenDemocracy, Byline Times and elsewhere.

Before moving into journalism, I was a diplomat, posted to Brussels and Istanbul, with stints in Beirut and Rome and secondments to the No 10 Press Office and the Home Office.

My reporting has been referenced in several legal challenges against the Home Secretary, as well as submissions and human rights reports. In October 2023, I gave evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee on the government’s failed Afghan resettlement schemes, which was drawn upon in the Afghanistan Withdrawal Inquiry and in questioning to Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad.

I was shortlisted for International Journalist of the Year at the One World Media Awards 2024 and my piece on abuse in asylum hotels was longlisted for best written news story at the Amnesty Media Awards. In 2022, I was highly commended for Campaigning Journalist of the Year and shortlisted for Freelance Journalist of the Year at the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards 2022. I was also a finalist in the Social Affairs category for the British Journalism Awards 2022. In 2021, I was nominated for the Amnesty International Gaby Rado Award and I was shortlisted for New Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards 2020.

I regularly feature on the BBC, LBC and elsewhere as a media commentator on UK asylum issues, as well as panel discussions, podcasts, journalism conferences and guest lectures at universities across the UK. I’m a mentor at the Refugee Journalism Project, a Fellow of the International Women’s Media Foundation and the European Journalism Fund and a member of both the Frontline Freelance Register and the NUJ.

My first book, ‘Anywhere But Here: Stories From The Frontline Of A Broken Asylum System’, will be published by Elliott and Thompson in spring 2025.