Sangeetha Iengar

Overview

Sangeetha has a growing public inquiry practice. She is currently instructed as Junior Counsel in multiple modules of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. This involves representing a unique Core Participant group of patient advocates who stand for the interests of over 2 million surviving victims of the virus. Sangeetha is keen to build on this experience into public inquiries that are investigating matters concerning migrants’ rights.

Notable Cases

• UK Covid 19 Inquiry, Module 2 – Junior Counsel acting for three Long Covid organisations. Led by Anthony Metzer KC
• UK Covid 19 Inquiry Module 3 – Junior Counsel acting for four Long Covid organisations. Led by Sarah Hannett KC
• UK Covid 19 Inquiry Module 8 – Junior Counsel acting for two Long Covid organisations. Led by Sarah Hannett KC
• UK Covid 19 Inquiry Module 9 – Junior Counsel acting for two Long Covid organisations. Led by Sarah Hannett KC

Overview

Sangeetha is a specialist in public law challenges on behalf of vulnerable Claimants. As a cross-disciplinary expert, Sangeetha brings her extensive experience in immigration law to this area of law. She has significant experience in age-dispute and age assessment claims brought by unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and judicial reviews of the failure to provide section 95 support.  Sangeetha has a particular interest in supporting victims of trafficking in claims that may arise.

Notable Cases

• YA, R (on the application of) Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council CO/2447/2022 – Successful claim challenging the legality of an age assessment and the adequacy of accommodation provided to an unaccompanied Iraqi asylum-seeking child.
• OA, R (on the application of) West Northamptonshire Council CO/4439/2022 – Ongoing challenge to the failure to conduct a Merton-compliant age assessment and the continuing provision of inappropriate adult accommodation.

Overview

Sangeetha is an experienced public law practitioner. Sangeetha is regularly instructed on high profile and complex challenges, including judicial reviews and public law considerations in a variety of cases. She draws upon expertise in several different areas, including immigration, EU law, and other areas of social welfare law.

She regularly brings challenges to Government policy and secondary legislation, she has experience of acting for Core Participant groups in public inquiries and has a particular interest in issues involving false imprisonment, administrative detention and human rights.

Sangeetha appears before the Upper Tribunal and the Administrative Court in substantive judicial review claims. Instructing solicitors particularly recommended her for her technical precision on judicial review matters involving unlawful detention and claims of trafficking which has led to her having a busy Claimant-focused public law practice.

Notable Cases

• Jane Doe v UKFCDO – led by Dan Squires KC
  Advice on challenging UKFCDO’s policy to refuse to automatically issue ETDs to accepted victims of State-sponsored arbitrary detention.
• UK Covid 19 Inquiry – led by Sarah Hannett KC
  Junior Counsel to the Long Covid Groups on four Modules of the Inquiry
• Advice and representation to individuals and journalists, including members of the Marie Colvin Journalists’ Network on matters involving arbitrary detention and malicious prosecution.

Overview

Sangeetha is a thought leader in the field of climate justice and has a keen interest in climate change litigation. She has been appointed Senior Research Scholar to the Faculty of Law at Yale University, and Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, the first of its kind. Both appointments are focused on climate-related migration, which allow Sangeetha to harness her experience as a seasoned public law practitioner and her extensive experience in immigration law, to advance this growing area of concern.

Sangeetha works with individuals, NGOs, foundations and third-party intervenors.

Sangeetha regularly engages in public speaking events on the intersection of climate change, human rights and immigration law. She recently spoke at a panel event alongside David Lammy MP and is engaged in shaping policy internationally in this sphere.

Sangeetha’s second TEDx talk will take place in January 2025 and will demystify the legal landscape of climate-related migration.

Overview

Sangeetha has over 15 years of experience as an immigration practitioner, and now also sits as a judge in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.  She has been consistently ranked a Leading Junior in Band 3 for Immigration Law by the Legal 500 directory.

Sangeetha has particular expertise of complex appeals representing unaccompanied children, survivors of torture, survivors of trafficking and individuals with complex mental health problems.

As an immigration law expert, Sangeetha spent two years in Brussels working with the European Commission to improve the access to fundamental rights for undocumented children and families. In this role, she was commissioned to publish a book, which was instrumental in broadening the discourse on irregular migration within the European institutions and member states.

Sangeetha’s first TEDx talk: ‘Why stripping rights from migrants, strips rights from everyone’ has had over 2k views and is shortlisted to appear on TED.com.

Notable Cases

• Unrecognised vulnerability: Greece’s systemic failure to identify and certify Victims of Torture – Submission to UNCAT on the Greek State’s failure to provide an authority trained under the provisions of the Istanbul Protocol to identify and recognise victims of torture.
• Safe Third Country Concept in Greece – Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants on the Greek State’s use of the ‘safe third country concept’ to deem asylum applications from select countries inadmissible to the national asylum process.

• S and S v The Hellenic Republic of Greece – Successful strategic litigation before the ECtHR involving two Syrian cousin asylum-seekers both suffering from motor disabilities. Case was landmark in setting precedent for the immediate evacuation of vulnerable asylum seekers from Lesvos following the fire which destroyed Moria refugee camp in 2020.
• O and Others – Led by Anthony Metzer KC, Sangeetha was instructed to advise eight prolific Turkish military pilots on the interpretation of the Refugee Convention and whether heavily guarded self-confinement in Greece complies with the socio-economic rights enshrined within the Convention;
• Liksenaj, R (on the application of) v SSHDJR/900/2016 – Substantive JR certification challenge on a claim involving a longstanding victim of child sexual and physical abuse;
• Rhouila, R (on the application of) v SSHDJR/3793/2016 – Successful substantive JR of a fresh claim in relation to foreign national family carers;
• Kaur, R (on the application of) v SSHDJR/10374/2016 – Successful substantive JR challenge in a matter involving unlawful detention before the Administrative court; and
• SS (Pakistan) v SSHDC5/2016/2560 – Court of Appeal matter concerning the proper approach to be taken in cases concerning irregular migrants who act as whistle-blowers for serious criminal investigations.
• Leka, R (on the application of) SSHDJR/4584/2015 – Successful substantive JR concerning certification of protection claim involving threat of forced marriage to a minor;

Overview

Sangeetha is an award-winning public international barrister with a broad range of experience and particular interest in submissions to UN Treaty Bodies and Charter Bodies on the rights of asylum seekers and refugees and matters involving the rights of survivors of sexual violence. Her international work has been highly commended, most notably by her winning the International Pro Bono Barrister of the Year Award, 2020.

As a preferred international human rights expert, Sangeetha has advised individuals, international and non-governmental organisations on a wide range of public international and international human rights law issues. These cases have concerned matters of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and extra-judicial killing.  She has also advised on the use of treaty-based and regional human rights complaint procedures.

She was instructed by Hogan Lovells and the Global Survivors Fund to advise on the feasibility of using international sanctions and terrorist financing legislation to fund reparations for Yazidi victims of sexual violence in conflict through a global fund.

She has spent several years ‘on the ground’ advising governments of fragile states and parties in conflict zones. This has involved advising Governments on improving access to justice for vulnerable communities, proposing structural improvements to formal criminal justice systems, advising on capital punishment cases, and implementing community-based justice solutions regionally.  All of her work has focused on improving access to legal rights for the most vulnerable of communities.

Sangeetha has published policy papers and reports on a broad range of human rights, rule of law and migration issues. She has led and facilitated several trainings globally for DFID, the UK Foreign Office, the World Bank, UNDP and the European Commission (DEVCO). Sangeetha regularly gives expert opinion to the press on international human rights issues.

Notable Cases

• Jane Doe v UKFCDO – instructed by Bindmans, led by Dan Squires KC
  Advice on challenging UKFCDO’s policy to refuse to automatically issue ETDs to accepted victims of State-sponsored arbitrary detention.
• Jane Doe v Federal Republic of Nigeria (2024) – instructed by Anjarwalla, Collins & Haidermoto
  Advice concerning a high profile politically motivated arbitrary detention and malicious prosecution by Nigerian State authorities
• Finance for Restorative Justice– Instructed by Hogan Lovells
  Instructed to advise on the feasibility of using international sanctions regimes and terrorist financing legislation to repurpose fines and seized assets to fund reparations for refugee survivors of sexual violence in conflict through a centralised international fund, the Global Survivors Fund.
• SO and Others – Direct Access
  Sangeetha was instructed to advise eight prolific Turkish military pilots on the interpretation of the Refugee Convention and whether heavily guarded self-confinement in Greece complies with the socio-economic rights enshrined within the Convention.
• Post-Ebola Commercial Law and Justice Priorities – instructed by DFID
  Advice to the Government of Sierra Leone on prioritising their commercial law and justice legislative agenda for post-Ebola recovery.
• Public Defender’s Office, Somaliland – instructed by UK Foreign Office
  Conducted the first nationwide qualitative mapping of access to justice in Somaliland and advised the Minister of Justice on re-designing the PDO to bridge customary and formal law and promote legal empowerment in vulnerable rural communities.
• Judicial Performance Improvement Project, Kenya – instructed by the World Bank
  Senior Legal Advisor to the World Bank’s US$120million project focused on designing and implementing a court-annexed mediation pilot to ease backlog (estimated at 20 years) in the commercial division of the Milimani High Court, Nairobi.