The Detention Forum Team
Eiri Ohtani is the Project Director of the Detention Forum since 2009. A migrant herself, she has worked with asylum seekers and immigrants for many years and was previously Director at Asylum Support Appeals Project. She now works as a consultant for NGOs, specialising in advocacy and strategy, worked at the International Detention Coalition. She recently co-authored a report on alternatives to detention Without Detention and has been involved in developing a number of community-based alternatives to detention pilots in Europe. She tweets as @EiriOhtani and is also Chair of Every Casualty Worldwide.
Sylvia says she is a “migrant who benefited from an open European political union which allowed me to choose where to live, work and settle. Throughout my life, I have worked and lived with refugees and asylum seekers in England and abroad and feel strongly that a just society must treat any newcomer with fairness and dignity, especially the most vulnerable.” She supports the Detention Forum as a volunteer.
Galadriel is a PhD student at University of Bath. She will join the Detention Forum team as a volunteer in September 2015. She would like to be involved in the fight against immigration detention in the UK as this is what she is already doing in Italy. She tweets as @Gala_dr
Alice is a researcher at Jigsaw Consult, an organisation working to enhance development outcomes through evaluation, research and learning. She previously co-ordinated advocacy and communications for the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. She joined the Detention Forum team as a volunteer in August 2015. She tweets at @alice_miranda1
Ruth is finishing a Masters degree at SOAS in Music in Development. She works as a musician and also volunteers for Music In Detention. Other than wanting to end immigration detention, her other political interests are to do with queer and LGBT lives, and Jewish diasporism. Ruth joined the Detention Forum as a social media volunteer in August 2016. She tweets at @ruthsays_.
Gareth is very recently retired after a career in communications, and many years actively campaigning in a personal capacity. For the past 15 years he worked on campaign and fundraising communications with a range of NGOs including Refugee Action, Peace Direct and Y Care International. He wants to put his editorial and creative experience into the coordinated effort to reform the UK’s unjust, punitive detention regime.
Romany has just completed a degree in Politics at the University of Sheffield. Her dissertation focused on resistance both inside and outside of Britain’s immigration removal centres. She read extensively on the inherent problems of the immigration system and the importance of organisations in the fight to reform it. She is taking a year out of education to gain a better understanding of the possible careers that aim to protect the rights of people denied citizenship. She tweets at @rrromany
Volunteers take turns to run our Twitter account. Our rota at the moment is:
Monday – Gareth
Tuesday – Romany and Hannah
Wednesday – Livi and Nicholas
Thursday – Ruth and Tamsin
Friday – Sylvia
Saturday – Gala and Zahra
Sunday – Catherine and Tania
Alice is providing information curating support.