Markella Papadouli
Europe Litigation Coordinator
Markella has been associated with The AIRE Centre since 2012 and she returned in 2013. Markella is a UK Registered, Greek qualified, European lawyer and AIRE Centre’s Europe Litigation Coordinator. In this capacity she coordinates the AIRE Centre strategic litigation team, specialising on taking asylum, and trafficking cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU. She leads the AIRE Centre’s asylum, law of the sea, and trafficking work, providing free legal advice and representation to victims of trafficking, the delivery of training to relevant stakeholders and the representation of the AIRE Centre at conferences and meetings worldwide on both issues of interest. Markella represents the AIRE Centre in the Frontex NGO Consultative Forum and the EASO Consultative Forum. Markella is a Lecturer at London South Bank University for the Msc in Refuge Studies on European Asylum Law and Policy and International Refugee Law since 2013.
Markella studied Law t the University of Athens and holds an LLM degree in Maritime Law from the University of Southamption and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Warwick on International Relations and Human Rights. her Maritime law dissertation critically assessed the interaction between the international and European maritime law provisions with the Common European Asylum system and the Dublin Regulation in particular, while her MA dissertation focused on the role of UNHCR in monitoring implementation of EU legislation and policies on migration and asylum. She further holds a Diploma in Grants Management and has completed the Odysseus Network Summer School in European Law and Policy on Immigration and Asylum.
Markella was the National Expert on Greece for the European Database on Asylum Law in 2013 and has also worked for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, the International Rescue Committee and UNHCR Greece. Markella speaks fluent Greek, English, French and Spanish as well as basic German.