The Borders newsroom uses collaborative journalism to report on human rights abuses at the world’s borders and hold the powerful to account. It detects and decodes disinformation and empowers investigative journalism in a hostile context. It digs up the evidence needed for a public debate on challenges to fundamental rights and the rule of law.
NEWSROOM BORDERS
Drownings and Deterrence in the Rio Grande
More women and children are drowning trying to reach the US as Texas and Mexico militarize the border. Record requests reveal the soaring death toll in the Rio Grande amid official undercounts.
Border911
Ahead of the US election, the architect of Trump’s family separation policy – slated to return to office if Trump is re-elected – is using border disinformation to lay the groundwork for challenging the election results.
Turkey’s EU-funded deportation machine
The EU has funnelled hundreds of millions of euros into a shadowy deportation system operating just outside its borders in Turkey. Syrian and Afghan refugees have been detained, abused and even killed as a result
Desert Dumps
Europe supports, finances and is directly involved in clandestine operations in North African countries to dump tens of thousands of Black people in the desert or remote areas each year to prevent them from coming to the EU.
Sink the Boats
The UK government is paying France to ‘Stop the Boats’. Now first-time footage reveals French police have violently intercepted dinghies sailing for Britain, risking the lives of people on board
Smoke and Lies
Visual investigation reconstructs the unseen events which saw 40 people suffocate to death in a migrant detention centre fire in Ciudad Juárez, disproving official account
2,200 Frontex emails to Libya
Frontex has shared locations of migrant boats with Libya’s coast guard more than 2,000 times in three years – despite watching them whip, beat and shoot at passengers
Frontex and the pirate ship
The EU’s border agency Frontex and the Maltese government are systematically sharing coordinates of refugee boats trying to escape Libya with a vessel operated by a militia linked to Russia, human trafficking, war crimes and smuggling.
Europe’s Nameless Dead
As more people try to reach Western Europe through the Balkans, taking increasingly dangerous routes to evade border police, many are dying without a trace
Smuggler, Warlord, EU ally
The lead smugglers behind the Pylos shipwreck are closely linked to General Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord who EU leaders are partnering with to curb migration
Drowning in Lies
Greece tries to cover up its own role in the Pylos shipwreck by tampering with evidence
The Crotone Cover Up
Italy lied about its role in a shipwreck that killed 94 people – including 35 children – and the EU border agency Frontex helped cover it up
Inside Croatia’s Secret WhatsApp Group
How high-ranking Croatian officials presided over clandestine communications about border operations
Detained below deck
Asylum seekers held in secret cells on ferries between Greece and Italy
Europe’s Black Sites
Refugees arbitrarily detained, tortured at secret facilities in EU
Shot for Seeking Asylum
First video of live ammunition being used against asylum seekers in EU
Reconstructing the Melilla Massacre
Visual evidence, testimony, ground reporting reveal Spain and Morocco lies
“We were slaves”
Greece uses asylum seekers to forcibly return migrants to Turkey
Frontex, the EU Pushback Agency
Frontex’s internal data shows EU border agency involved in mass pushbacks
Aegean Pushbacks Lead to Drowning
Whistleblowers claims new tactic of being thrown overboard off Turkish coast
Who died at Europe’s border?
Using OSINT to find life stories of nameless dead at Poland-Belarus border
Unmasking Europe’s Shadow Armies
Shocking evidence links violence against asylum seekers in EU to state security
Moria: After the Fire
Year in the life of survivors of blaze that destroyed EU’s largest refugee camp
Frontex in the Central Mediterranean
EU agency plays a direct role in Libyan coast guard’s interception operations
Frontex Chapter III: Agency in Turmoil
Toxic culture at EU’s border agency, leadership under investigation
Frontex Complicit in Pushbacks
Pushbacks in Greece undertaken with support or connivance of EU super agency
Masked men
Clandestine state forces behind most violent pushbacks, according to new evidence
Cast Adrift
Greek coast guard intercepts asylum seekers, abandons them on life rafts
Torment in Turkey
Asylum seekers funneled to EU border are pawns in power game
The Killing of Muhammad Gulzar
Reconstructing a death at the Greek-Turkish border raises serious questions
Deep Pushbacks From Greece
New wave in Greece of extrajudicial deportations overland and at sea