Background
Ralitsa is a Solicitor at the London office. She joined the firm in January 2020 as a paralegal, having previously worked at the AIRE Centre where she undertook EU freedom of movement case work, specifically around aspects of deportation and entitlement to residence rights for vulnerable clients, mostly victims of domestic abuse.
Ralitsa trained with Zubier Yazdani and Polly Glynn working on a range of complex and high-profile public and private law cases, gaining experience in trafficking, immigration detention and migrant support cases. Ralitsa has worked on a variety of Judicial Reviews, challenging a range of decisions by public bodies, such as failures to recognise clients as victims of trafficking, breaching their duties under Article 4 ECHR, failing to carry out an adequate investigation as to whether someone has been trafficked and failing to provide victims with adequate support. Alongside having been involved in several significant public law cases, Ralitsa has also worked on civil damages claims against companies that employed victims of trafficking.
During her time as trainee, Ralitsa also worked on the Brook House Inquiry, reviewing documents and identifying incidents of mistreatment which were capable of amounting to inhuman and/or degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR. The Inquiry report was published on 19 September 2023, finding detainees suffered unacceptable treatment, due to systemic failures in the system of safeguards designed to protect vulnerable people in detention. The report also identified extensive racism, dehumanisation and found that prisonisation at the immigration removal centre had created a toxic culture, whereby mistreatment was more likely to occur.
Currently, Ralitsa works with Ceri-Lloyd Hughes in civil damages claims, representing a group of Claimants affected by an unlawful blanket policy operating in 2020, whereby the Home Office seized nearly 2000 phones from migrants entering the UK by small boat, indiscriminately downloaded their data and retained their phones for many months.