Mieke Verrelst is a PhD researcher and teaching assistant in constitutional and administrative law, working under the supervision of prof. Dirk Vanheule. Her research focuses on immigration and asylum law.
Before joining the Government and Law Research Group at the University of Antwerp in 2023, she worked for the Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration as an advisor and deputy head of cabinet. Prior to that, she worked as a protection officer at the Regional Representation of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Brussels. She also worked as a researcher for UNHCR in the 2012 CREDO project on credibility assessment in the asylum procedure, and for ECRE in the 2013 APAIPA project on actors of protection and the application of internal protection alternative. From 2008 to 2012, she was member of the Antwerp Bar Association, with a main focus on immigration and asylum law.
Since 2013, she has provided trainings to government officials, lawyers, and NGO's, as well as guest lectures at Ghent University, on various topics such as statelessness, UNHCR guidelines, fundamental rights at external borders, and immigration detention.
She holds a master of law (University of Antwerp and Erasmus exchange at Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis) and a master of international relations and diplomacy (University of Antwerp and Erasmus exchange at Marmara University in Istanbul).
Areas of Expertise:
- Immigration and Asylum Law
- Statelessness
Selected Publications:
- B. Gabriëls, D. Geens, S. Micholt, P. Staelens, S. Staelens, F. Tamborijn, J. Troch, V. Vereecke, M. Verrelst, K. Verstrepen (2014) Wet & Duiding Verblijfswetgeving – Tweede herwerkte editie