About
Melissa Pawson is a freelance journalist and editor. She covers migration, the climate crisis and human rights issues across Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Greece and the UK. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera, openDemocracy, Middle East Eye, The New Humanitarian, Syria Direct, Lacuna Magazine and Al-Monitor. She is also an assistant editor for Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, which is part of openDemocracy.
Melissa has broken stories about accusations of Greece using migrants in illegal pushbacks of migrants, covered the human impact of water scarcity in conflict affected areas of Iraq and Syria and revealed how hundreds of Syrians were left trapped after being forcibly deported from Turkey. She also commissioned, edited and produced a series on the criminalisation of migration in the UK, Europe and beyond, for UK outlet openDemocracy. Her portfolio of work is on muckrack and on this site.
Melissa has a BA in English Literature and Language and an MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights. She speaks English (native) and Arabic (Levantine dialect).
Previous to working as a journalist, Melissa worked as a support worker in the housing sector, as an English teacher to foreign students, as an academic research assistant, and as a volunteer for refugee response initiatives on the Greek island of Samos and in Calais, France. She now lives with an ex-street cat called Tuna.
