Right to Remain, Management Committee 

Callum Lynch

Callum has been a trustee with Right to Remain since February 2024. He works in the Actions Against the Police and State team at Bindmans LLP, and is an LLB Law and LLM International Human Rights Law graduate. He previously worked as an Advice & Information Officer at Liberty, providing human rights legal advice to members of the public and producing informational resources, as well as collaboratively delivering training for grassroots organisations on protest rights and navigating interactions with the police. He was a volunteer with Right to Remain (then the ‘NCADC’) in 2014, and has worked within numerous human rights organisations, including Detention Action, Prisoners’ Advice Service, REDRESS, and Black Protest Legal Support, to safeguard the rights and dignity of racialised, migrant and other marginalised communities.

Melanie Griffiths

Melanie Griffiths is a social scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, working on immigration governance and enforcement in the UK. Her previous research includes looking at the impact of insecure immigration status and deportability on mixed-citizenship families; judicial cultures at different immigration tribunal hearing centres; and identity disputes in asylum cases. She is committed to using migration research to change border regimes and works closely with people who move, NGOs and practitioners.

Maria Dardagan

Maria is the Chair of the Management Committee. She has worked in the voluntary sector for over 35 years, with organisations assisting migrants and refugees to attain their rights. She helped establish a charity working with Filipino domestic workers who fled their abusive employers. As a community organiser and campaigner, she managed several projects including leadership and people’s theatre initiatives to empower Filipino migrants in the UK. Maria worked as a fundraiser with Asylum Aid, Against Violence and Abuse and Medical Justice. She currently volunteers at the FInsbury Park Trust.

Simon Cox

Over the last 25 years, Simon has acted in many leading cases for individuals, groups of victims and for NGOs. Simon’s work includes judicial review, immigration, European Union and international law, social welfare and discrimination. He has appeared before United Kingdom and European courts and tribunals at all levels, including the UK Supreme Court, Court of Justice of the European Union and European Court of Human Rights, as well as the Court of Appeal and statutory tribunals. Simon is our Treasurer.