Maha Sardar

Background

Prior to joining chambers, Maha worked with numerous human rights organisations including Refugee and Migrant Justice and the UNHCR. She has an unwavering commitment to human rights and humanitarian issues, not only through her work but also in a personal capacity, including visiting refugee camps and delivering aid and food to displaced people.

Maha has assisted vulnerable clients on a pro-bono basis. In 2018 she was approached by charity Goodwill Caravan to represent a Syrian boy and his mother living in Greece. Najib suffered life-threatening injuries when he was caught in an airstrike in his hometown in Homs. Maha assisted Najib and his mother obtain a visa so that he could undergo life-saving medical treatment at Great Ormond Street hospital. Najib’s story has been covered by Sky News.

Maha is dedicated to continuing education in the field of human rights and in 2018 she completed the Harvard Executive Course Leading Non-Violent Movements for Social Progress.

Training and Seminars

Maha has provided training in Human Rights in various settings. For several years she regularly gave diversity awareness training at Hendon Police College where recruits were trained to become police officers. She taught the importance of cultural awareness and religious sensitivities in the community, with its consequential impact on Human Rights.

Whilst living in Turkey, Maha provided a training session on The Assessment of the Credibility of Asylum Seekers to new UNHCR employees in Ankara. Over the course of the academic year in 2013 she delivered lectures to students at Bogazici University in Istanbul entitled Introduction to Human Rights.

Maha is also a regular trainer with HJT Training where she delivers sessions on a wide range of immigration and asylum matters.

She is currently working on a personal non-profit social enterprise project for refugees in the UK. She is developing an App called Belong to provide the tools, information, contacts and connections that will assist refugees to become fully functioning members of society and provide a sense of belonging in their new home.

Pupillage

Maha completed her pupillage at Garden Court Chambers under the supervision of Sonali Naik QC. As a pupil she assisted in the preparation of the Court of Appeal and Upper Tribunal case of HM (Iraq) on the safety of returns of Iraqi asylum seekers to Baghdad.

She also worked on the case of KA (Afghanistan) in the Court of Appeal concerning unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from Afghanistan and the Secretary of State’s duty to trace their family members.

Maha also represented criminal defendants in both the magistrates and crown courts. Maha’s representation of a high-profile individual in the criminal courts has received media coverage.