Jan is an immigration barrister with 20 years of experience in all aspects of asylum, immigration and human rights law. He is extremely passionate about getting justice for his clients and has earned a reputation as a dedicated and tenacious barrister with a remarkable success rate.
He has a particular interest in complex and/or protracted cases including those with an extensive refusal background, cases involving vulnerable individuals such as adult dependent relatives, victims of torture, members of the LGBTIQ+ community as well as cases involving complex medical histories.
Jan continues to be a regular go-to for national media on topical immigration and human rights issues. As a speaker on human rights issues, he was invited to address the European Parliament in relation to the consequences of Brexit on EU and British citizens. Jan has also conducted human rights training in Syria, Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland and Germany and has taken part in UN fact-finding missions to Brazil and Uzbekistan with the UN Special Rapporteur on torture.
Jan’s experience working at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva gives him excellent insight into how best to employ international mechanisms to assist his clients. He also lobbies internationally on UK human rights trends and can be instructed to advise on the use on UN mechanisms, both in individual cases and in relation to general patterns of human rights violations.
He is direct access accredited and prides himself on having excellent and productive working relationships with a wide spectrum of clients including lay clients, professional clients, businesses and local authorities.
In addition to providing general immigration advice at all stages of proceedings (including on grounds of appeal/applications for permission to appeal and merits of judicial review challenges), he also advises on complaints against the Home Office and in professional negligence cases involving immigration matters.
Languages: English, German, French and Spanish (conversational).
Awards / Nominations:
In 2008 Jan was nominated and shortlisted for the Peter Duffy Award 2008 (awarded by JUSTICE, Liberty and the Law Society) for his outstanding commitment and work in the field of human rights in particular in the protection of minorities.
Reported Cases:
SX(Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] All ER (D) 259 (Jun)
R(Armand Marcel Koimon) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWHC 2733 (Admin)
Publications:
- Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol.24, No.2 2005 The Convention against Torture and the Protection of Refugees in Human Rights and Refugees (UNHCR, Oxford University Press)
- IRCSM (July 2005) Sexual Minorities in Uzbekistan
- UN Fact Sheet No. 4 (June 2002) Combating Torture (UN, Geneva)
- Co-author of Press For Change: Transsexual People in the Workplace—A Code of Practice (1999)
- Legal Action Group | Jan Doerfel (lag.org.uk)
Jan has also contributed the following articles to LAG Magazine :
- 2018
- ‘UN fact-finding mission to UK: ‘poverty is a political choice”
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- EU citizens’ rights after Brexit – the latest state of affairs
- 2017
- Brexit and migration: the UK’s position on the rights of EU nationals in the UK post-Brexit
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- Immigration: case note (May 17) (Minimum Income Requirement Supreme Court decision)
- 2016
- A straight-talking UN committee has taken the government to task on access to justice
Interested in instructing Mr Doerfel?
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