NEWSROOM BORDERS

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.

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.

'No name' graves in Bijeljina cemetery, Bosnia

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

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

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

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

“We were slaves”

Greece uses asylum seekers to forcibly return migrants to Turkey

Moria: After the Fire

Year in the life of survivors of blaze that destroyed EU’s largest refugee camp

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