Valeria Ilareva is both a practitioner and an academic in the field of refugee and immigration law. This two-fold expertise is reflected in her involvement at the Legal Clinic for Refugees and Immigrants at the University of Sofia (www.lcri.hit.bg) where she has served as a trainer and a supervising lawyer in the work with students providing free legal aid to aliens in Bulgaria.
Ms. Ilareva is a member of the Sofia Bar and a practising lawyer in refugee and immigration law. In her case-to-case work and international advocacy she has dedicated special attention to immigration detainees
At the same time, Valeria Ilareva has done academic studies and research in the field of refugee and immigration law with a focus on EC and Council of Europe law. Her Master thesis in 2003 is on the “European Union Policy in the Field of Asylum”.
Currently Valeria Ilareva writes a PhD dissertation on "Undocumented Immigrants and their Access to Fundamental Human Rights" under the co-tutorship of the University of Sofia and the University Complutense of Madrid.

Publications

• (article Bulgaria's Treatment of Asylum Seekers, Forced Migration Review, issue 29, December 2007, http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR29/FMR29.pdf, page 60-61).
• Research paper comparing law and practice on immigration detention in Bulgaria with international and European legal standards (available online at http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jan/valeria-iIlareva-immigration-detention-bulgaria.pdf ).