Background
Unkha is a public law solicitor in our London office. She specialises in migrant rights issues and is regularly instructed in complex immigration and human rights judicial reviews.
Expertise
Unkha sees the law as a tool for social change and therefore has a strong interest in strategic litigation. She has successfully challenged public authorities in a number of cases including:
R(AM) v SSHD – a application to commit the Home Secretary for contempt of court following breach of a mandatory injunction obtained in interim relief proceedings to provide AM with adequate accommodation under s.95 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
R(RG) v SSHD – a challenge against the Home Secretary for failure to provide s95 support including adequate accommodation and subsistence payments to a victim of trafficking for a period of over two years. Resulted in the Claimant being provided with suitable accommodation and over £7,000 in back payments.
R (AH and others) v FCDO – Unkha assisted in the representation of 12 former British Embassy guards (former employees of GardaWorld) in a joint challenge against the FCDOs refusal to grant them resettlement under ACRS. This exposed systemic failures in how FCDO was processing applications. All clients were granted resettlement, and the Government changed its policy to remove the limit of people to be resettled under ACRS Pathway 3.
R (MN and others) v SSHD – Unkha assisted in the ongoing systemic judicial review claim challenging the Home Secretary’s use of former Ministry of Defence site, RAF Wethersfield, as asylum accommodation and the legality of the regime at Wethersfield as it applies to vulnerable asylum seekers under the Allocation of Accommodation Policy. Unkha is representing one of the four lead claimants (HAA).
Memberships
Unkha is on the committee for the Immigration Lawyers and Practitioners Association (‘ILPA’)’s Strategic Legal Advice Committee – a project to connect NGOs with legal specialists to share knowledge and collaborate on potential legal challenges. Unkha is also a Co-Convener of ILPA’s Racial Justice and Equity working group. In 2024, Unkha was nominated and participated in the US Government’s International Visitor Leadership Program (‘IVLP’) on Strategic Litigation for Social Change.
She is an accredited Level 2 Senior Caseworker under the Law Society’s Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme. She also holds an LLM from the School of Oriental and African Studies in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice, and speaks conversational Spanish.
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