My research situates itself in the field of border criminology, a field concerned with the growing confluence of immigration control and criminal justice. During my MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2014-2015) at the University of Oxford (UK), I conducted qualitative research on the legitimacy of immigration detention from the perspective of volunteers and activists that were either offering voluntary services to immigration detainees or campaigning against immigration detention.
The research focused on the area of Oxford and in particular, on Campsfield House, an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) managed at the time by private company Mitie Care and Custody and recently closed down, following the Stephen Shaw’s review into welfare of vulnerable people in detention. My MSc dissertation was highly commended in the framework of the John Sunley Prize, a prize awarded by the Howard League for Penal Reform (UK) to Master students whose original dissertations contribute to the cause of penal reform.
In the past few years, I have increasingly focused on issues related to sexual and gender-based violence in the context of migration and displacement. In 2015, I conducted qualitative interviews with migrants and refugees who were living in Malta on behalf of Maltese think-tank People for Change Foundation, as part of the MedMIG Project, an ESRC-funded large-scale comparative study looking into the experiences and routes of migrants in Italy, Greece, Malta and Turkey, led by the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. Between 2017 and 2018, I conducted desk and empirical research in the context of Project CAPTIVE (Cultural Agent Promoting & Targeting Interventions vs Violence & Enslavement), an EU Project focusing on migrant women’s experiences of SGBV and help-seeking journeys in Malta, France, Spain, Germany and the UK, managed by the Department of Criminology at the University of Malta.
In 2018, I was involved in a research study seeking to investigate “vulnerability” to trafficking, which was commissioned by a Maltese governmental body. The final research report, co-authored with Dr. Janice-Formosa Pace, draws on 40 semi-structured interviews with women and minors residing in open centres for asylum-seekers and refugees in Malta, as well as on a small sample of interviews with open centre Managers.
In line with my main research interests and research activities conducted in the past few years, my doctoral project focuses on the intersections of migrant sex work and trafficking on the island of Malta with the aim of uncovering migrant sex workers’ lived experiences, including experiences of victimisation and violence, which may fall under trafficking. As of September 2021, I am also acting as co-secretary and co-organiser of Work in Progress Sessions for the Human Trafficking Research Network at Queen University Belfast.
My research situates itself in the field of border criminology, a field concerned with the growing confluence of immigration control and criminal justice. During my MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2014-2015) at the University of Oxford (UK), I conducted qualitative research on the legitimacy of immigration detention from the perspective of volunteers and activists that were either offering voluntary services to immigration detainees or campaigning against immigration detention.
The research focused on the area of Oxford and in particular, on Campsfield House, an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) managed at the time by private company Mitie Care and Custody and recently closed down, following the Stephen Shaw’s review into welfare of vulnerable people in detention. My MSc dissertation was highly commended by the John Sunley Prize Committee. The Sunley Prize is a prize awarded by the Howard League for Penal Reform (UK) to Master students whose original dissertations contribute to the cause of penal reform.
In the past few years, I have increasingly focused on issues related to sexual and gender-based violence in the context of migration and displacement. In 2015, I conducted qualitative interviews with migrants and refugees who were living in Malta on behalf of Maltese think-tank People for Change Foundation, as part of the MedMIG Project, an ESRC-funded large-scale comparative study looking into the experiences and routes of migrants in Italy, Greece, Malta and Turkey, led by the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. Between 2017 and 2018, I conducted desk and empirical research in the context of Project CAPTIVE (Cultural Agent Promoting & Targeting Interventions vs Violence & Enslavement), an EU Project focusing on migrant women’s experiences of SGBV and help-seeking journeys in Malta, France, Spain, Germany and the UK, managed by the Department of Criminology at the University of Malta.
In 2018, I was involved in a research study seeking to investigate “vulnerability” to trafficking, which was commissioned by a Maltese governmental body. The final research report, co-authored with Dr. Janice-Formosa Pace, draws on 40 semi-structured interviews with women and minors residing in open centres for asylum-seekers and refugees in Malta, as well as on a small sample of interviews with open centre Managers.
In line with my main research interests and research activities conducted in the past few years, my doctoral project focuses on the intersections of migrant sex work and trafficking on the island of Malta with the aim of uncovering migrant sex workers’ lived experiences, including their lived experiences of vulnerability and instances of exploitation, victimisation and violence, which may fall under trafficking. The research will also scrutinise the European and national legal and policy contexts and look into the impact that sex work, trafficking and migration policies have on migrant sex workers in Malta. Furthermore, my PhD project seeks to unpack the NGO response to trafficking, delving deeper into civil society’s approaches and practices in the provision of support to individuals identified as “vulnerable”. Alongside my PhD research, as of September 2021, I am acting as co-secretary and co-organiser of Work in Progress Sessions for the Human Trafficking Research Network at Queen University Belfast.