Sangeetha Iengar

Sangeetha is an award winning international human rights barrister practising from Goldsmith Chambers in London.  She also sits as a Judge in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. 

In her domestic practice she specialises on asylum, immigration and nationality issues. Sangeetha also has an extensive international practice which involves advising on issues of harassment, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture in fragile States.  

She spent two years in Brussels leading a European Commission project to improve access to fundamental rights for undocumented children and families across Europe. In this role Sangeetha published a book which was instrumental in broadening the discourse on irregular migration within the European institutions and member states.  

Sangeetha now spends much of her time and energy providing pro bono advice to migrants on the ‘first shores’ of Europe in the hope of causing structural change.  She is a volunteer lawyer for Refugee Legal Service in Athens and is President of the Board of FENIX Humanitarian Legal Aid, a volunteer-led NGO which provides legal advice and information in Lesvos.  A committed advocate, Sangeetha regularly gives expert legal opinion on immigration and human rights issues in the radio, TV and print media.  Sangeetha is a TEDx speaker and also gives keynote addresses. Her first TEDx talk entitled ‘Why Stripping Rights from Migrants Strips Rights from Everyone’ has been shortlisted to appear on TED.com.