MOBILE – Mobility Law Open Lab with Amina Memon

Tackling on-going challenges in assessing credibility in asylum testimony

Guest presenter: Amina Memon is a Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London and Co- Director of the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law. Her work is informed by social psychological approaches to understanding memory, decision making and credibility assessment. Current research focuses on challenges in information gathering and contextual influences (such as emotion) on decision makers judgements about truthfulness and credibility in asylum contexts.  Recent publications include work on memory accuracy and credibility, interviewing across cultures, the potential AI systems in criminal justice settings and interpreter mediated interviews. Amina’s work draws attention to biases that can exacerbate social divisions and endanger human rights.  She has served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases on her expertise in child witness memory, eyewitness identification and historic abuse in the UK and USA. Her work on investigative interviewing and the Cognitive Interview has been highly cited and continues to impact policy and best practice in information gathering from witnesses.

Presentation: Drawing on insights from cognitive, clinical, and cross-cultural psychology I will examine the challenges for the asylum seeker in providing consistent and credibility testimony to the Immigration Service.  First, we will explore how a western cultural lens may lead an interviewer and decision maker to expect a traumatised asylum to present in a certain way, for example when describing a distressing experience. Second, we examine the contradictory and non-transparent ways in which credibility is assessed within the interview.  This process is compounded by a culture of disbelief and reliance on non-verbal and other indicators of ‘truthfulness’ which are not grounded in the science. Finally, we will look at how working with an interpreter can disadvantage an asylum seeker in the absence of a rapport and trust. I’ll end by briefly commenting on the introduction of opaque AI tools by the UK Home Office described by Migrant rights campaigners as” technology being used to make cruelty and harm more efficient”.

Time: 5 December 2024 14:00-15:15

Place: MOBILE – 6B-2-22 Southern Campus + Online

Online participation

For online participation please register using this form. You will receive a Zoom link after you have registered.