Department: Department of European, Public and International Law

  • Ruben Wissing

    Ruben is a postdoctoral researcher and teaching assistant at the Migration Law Research Group. His research interests are situated at the intersection of refugee, human rights and international law, and entails doctrinal analysis, socio-legal research, critical and postcolonial perspectives and alternative knowledge production. His work focusses on transnational and regional law and policy dynamics in and at the borders of Europe. Ruben is member of the CESSMIR steering group, and is affiliated to the Human Rights Centre and to the Refugee Law Initiative of the University of London. He completed a PhD on the protection of refugees in Morocco from a multidisciplinary perspective. He teaches the course Law and Society.Ruben holds a master in Law and a bachelor in Philosophy. He practiced as a migration lawyer, as a legal officer and policy coordinator in various Belgian non-profits, worked for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and is a co-founder of NANSEN, the Belgian Refugee Council.

  • Thomas Spijkerboer

    Thomas Spijkerboer (1963) is research professor of Migration Law at Ghent University, where he leads the project Global Migration Justice: Beyond conflicting approaches to migration and international human rights law (MIGJUST).He studies at the University of Amsterdam (1981-1986), and during his studies was a volunteer at the Stichting Rechtswinkel Amsterdam. From 1986 until 1993 he worked at the Advokatenkollektief Zaanstreek. Between 1993 and 2000 he was lecturer of Migration Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, where he wrote is PhD thesis Gender and Refugee Status. From 2000 until 2024 he was professor of Migration Law at the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

  • Ellen Desmet

    Ellen Desmet is an Associate Professor of Migration Law at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of Ghent University. She founded and heads the Migration Law Research Group (MigrLaw). Her research is situated at the intersection of migration law, human rights and legal anthropology. She teaches migration law and ‘Law and Society’, and coordinates the migration law component of the Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic. Ellen Desmet complemented her law studies (KU Leuven) with a master in Cultures and Development Studies (KU Leuven) and a master in Development Cooperation (Ghent University). She holds a PhD in Law from the KU Leuven (2010) and previously held positions at the Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre, the Law and Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp and the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University.

  • Soline Ballet

    Soline Ballet (they/she) is a PhD researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy and is also affiliated to the Migration Law Research Group. Soline obtained a Master in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. Their research interests include processes of illegalisation of migrants, solidarity, activism and other forms of support. Soline has also been involved in grassroots initiatives for migrants in both Brussels and Athens. Their current research project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt, Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet and Prof. Dr. Ine Lietaert, focuses on practices of structural, future-oriented socio-legal and psycho-social support for illegalised migrants in Belgium.

  • Woldegebriel Dagne Admasu

    Woldegebriel Dagne Admasu is a doctoral researcher at the Migration Law Research Group, Ghent University. His PhD is funded by the NASCERE Joint Scholarship Program of Ghent University and Jimma University. His research interest inclines towards the analysis of Human Rights and Migration laws from a private law perspective. He has experience in doctrinal and socio-legal research. His doctoral research focuses on refugee’s right to work based on empirical socio-legal research in Ethiopia. His research is supervised by Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet, Prof. Dr. Milena Belloni (UAntwerp) and Dr. Fekadu Adugna (Addis Ababa University).Woldegebriel is also affiliated to the Center for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and the Human Rights Center (HRC) of Ghent University, Network on Migration and Global Mobility (MIGLOBA) of University of Antwerp, and Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) of University of London.

  • Roos-Marie van den Bogaard

    Roos-Marie van den Bogaard is a PhD candidate at Ghent University. She carries out research on the inclusion of families with international and temporary protection in Belgium as part of the REFUFAM project, which consists of an interdisciplinary consortium. Her research is carried out under supervision of Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet, Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt and Dr. Milena Belloni. Previously, Roos-Marie worked as Junior Advocacy Officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), advocating for the rights of undocumented migrants in Europe. Additionally, in her capacity as independent consultant, she conducted research on issues relating to free movement rights of mobile EU citizens. Through her volunteer work for the Dutch Refugee Council, as well as her work as Junior Program Officer on migration at Justice and Peace Netherlands, she familiarized herself more with refugee law and policy in the European context.

  • Sara Lembrechts

    Sara Lembrechts is a PhD researcher at the Migration Law Research Group at Ghent University. She studies the position of children, young people and families in appellate asylum proceedings in Belgium, using a multidisciplinary approach of legal ethnography. Sara has a Master’s in Children’s Rights and Childhood Studies (FU Berlin), an LLM in International Laws (Maastricht University) and a Bachelor in European Studies (Maastricht University). She has worked as a researcher and policy advisor for the Children’s Rights Knowledge Centre and was involved in several research projects about children’s rights and child abduction.

  • Maud Martens

    Maud Martens is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy and the Migration Law Research Group. She has a broad interest in socio-legal research on forced migration, with particular attention to migrants in transit. In this context, she explores various forms of support, solidarity and activism for and with migrants. In her current research project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt and Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet, Maud examines the organisation and implications of socio-legal support for migrants in Northern France. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Sciences, a Master’s degree in Political Sciences, and a Master’s degree in Conflict and Development Studies.

  • Lore Roels

    Lore Roels (she/her) is a doctoral researcher at the Migration Law Research Group (MigrLaw) and the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) at Ghent University. She is a member of the interfaculty Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) at the university and a steering committee member of the international Women in Refugee Law (WiRL) network. Lore is a lawyer specialising in human rights, migration law and gender studies (Master of Law, Ghent University; LL.M. in Human Rights, LSE). Her research analyses the gender sensitivity of asylum procedures and decisions concerning persons who flee sexual and gender-based violence.

  • Geertrui Daem

    Geertrui Daem is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Private International Law. Her empirical research focuses on the the complex legal problems refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection enncounter in Belgium regarding the recognition of their personal status. Geertrui studied Law in Ghent and Aix-en- Provence (2003) and holds an additional Master in Conflict and Development (2004).After completing her lawyers exam, she worked for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Algeria and Kenia. She further completed her asylum and migration expertise whilst working for the Flemish Refugee Action and the Belgian Refugee Council. As a migration law expert within the Agency for Civic Integration, she provided legal advice to practicioners working in the field of migration.She is particularly interested in migration law, private international law and human rights law.

  • Ayse Güdük

    Ayse Güdük is a PhD research fellow at the Migration Law research group at Ghent University. Ayse studied political science at VU Amsterdam (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). She obtained a bachelor and master degree in political science. After her studies she worked for the Dutch Council for Refugees (Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland) and later as a policy officer in a Dutch municipality responsible for local policy on refugees and education. Her PhD research focuses on family reunification of Turkish migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands; a comparative study of right perceptions and strategies in light of evolving policies from a sociolegal perspective. The research is done under the supervision of Prof. Ellen Desmet, professor of migration law. Her research is embedded in the interfaculty Centre of the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and Human Rights Centre (HRC).