Training

DT 1483 Psychological factors in credibility assessments of asylum seekers

"We will show you how to use your knowledge and understanding of the processes, together with appropriate research materials to challenge negative credibility findings for your clients."


This course will present and discuss various psychological reasons why some asylum seekers have particular difficulties in presenting their case.  We will present the latest research findings that help elucidate some of the psychological processes at work.  We will encourage discussion of the ways in which these findings can help legal representatives to better inform and support clients going through the asylum system.  Finally we will consider some of the effects that working with traumatised clients can have on us, both professionally and personally.


 

Event details

Date(s):29 October 2013
Start Time:16.00
End Time:19.15
Location:London
Level:Intermediate
Audience:Solicitors, barristers and caseworkers who prepare or who are involved in applications for refugee status
Main area:Asylum;Detention
Topics:Participants will have a clear understanding of some of the psychological factors involved in asylum seekers’ presentations of accounts of traumatic experiences, both at interview and in Court.   A better understanding of these issues should equip lawyers to recognise and explain the difficulties that their clients may be having, helping to persuade decision makers and reduce credibility issues.   It may also help lawyers understand difficulties they might have in their own interviewing of traumatised claimants.
 
Topics to be covered

  • Traumatic memory and the effects on presenting cases

  • Discrepancies in repeated interviews and possible psychological explanations for these.

  • Difficulties in disclosing traumatic experiences, particularly sexual violence.

  • Research findings related to decision making in asylum appeal courts.

  • Self care

 
Tutor details:Raggi Kotak, 1 Pump Court and Dr Jane Herlihy, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Director of the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law
Tutor biographies:Dr. Jane Herlihy is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist based in London, UK.  She has worked clinically with asylum seekers and refugees experiencing difficulties following traumatic experiences and is now Director of the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, writing and conducting research into the decision-making in refugee status claims.  She has presented widely to clinicians and to lawyers and judges, both on the clinical treatment of asylum seekers and refugees following traumatic experiences, and on the psychological aspects of refugee status decision making. Her particular interest is in the contribution that psychological knowledge and empirical research can make to the establishment of fair and humane processes for those fleeing persecution. She is an associate member of the International Association for Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) and an Honorary Lecturer at University College, London.
 
Raggi Kotak is a barrister at 1 Pump Court.  She has specialised in asylum issues since 2000. She has particular experience in representing clients who have faced gender violence and those that have significant mental health issues and the effect of these on the presentation of claims.