Radically collaborative journalism. Working with the world’s leading media on deeply reported, public interest investigations. bit.ly/LHR-newsletter
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When Assad’s security state collapsed, locked doors opened, spilling decades of secrets.
Among them: 100s of stolen children, hidden in orphanages & used to blackmail parents. We’ve done the deepest dive yet into this cruel system. Here’s what we found 🧵
lighthousereports.com/invest…
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When 94 people, including 35 children, drowned off the Italian coast in February, Italy said it would have launched a rescue mission had it known enough in time. @LHreports & partners uncover evidence showing Italy lied & @Frontex helped in a cover up
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EU border agency @Frontex have been sharing coordinates of refugee boats in the Central Med with a ‘pirate’ vessel run by a Libyan militia known for kidnap & torture. The cooperation with the group, which is linked to Wagner, is an apparent violation of international law
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Greece is trying to cover up its role in the Pylos shipwreck which caused 100s of deaths on 13 June
Documents obtained by @LHreports & partners show the Greek coast guard went as far as tampering with official statements given by survivors
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1/ "They're not letting the black girl go." This video captures a disturbing scene at a railway station in Ukraine as a young woman is prevented from boarding an evacuation train. @LHReports investigates this case & others
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What is France doing in return for UK cash to ‘stop the boats’?
Unseen footage obtained by @LHreports shows new aggressive campaign where French police carry out violent interceptions at sea – flooding & ramming into vessels & using pepper spray
Thread 🧵
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Today, after more than 2 years of investigations by @LHReports, the head of the EU’s border agency Frontex resigned. Small teams working in Europe’s public interest can make a big difference. Explainer in short 🧵
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While tourists on ferries are sipping from their sundowners, people - including children - are chained & locked up below decks in dark places
@LHreports & partners has investigated illegal returns of refugees by Italy to Greece
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Croatia has always denied any knowledge of violent & illegal operations by its own police forcing people seeking asylum back out of the EU
Now we can reveal that top Croatian officials were part of a secret WhatsApp group where such activities were shared & encouraged
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Greek police are using refugees as ‘slaves’ to force 1000s of desperate asylum seekers back to Turkey. For the first time you can hear one of them talk on camera about being forcibly recruited into violent operations that Greece still denies
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On Jun 24 a group of people, mainly refugees from Sudan, tried to cross Africa's land border with Europe. What followed as they were caught between Spanish & Moroccan forces has been called a massacre. @LHReports & partners reconstructed a day of death & chaos
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Tens of thousands of Black refugees & migrants are being rounded up across North Africa & dumped in the desert & remote areas, sometimes left for dead
These operations are secretly financed with European money, despite regional and EU denials 🧵
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Algorithms are being used in welfare systems across Europe to hunt for fraud. These machines make life-changing decisions about millions of people. They claim to be accurate and fair. For the first time we got access to fully test these claims
lighthousereports.com/invest…
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Few Europeans have heard of it but there's a lobby group in Brussels that holds sway over the future of food, farms & nature. We dug deep into Copa-Cogeca to find a Brussels bully that's bleeding support among farmers 🧵
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The Netherlands is using a secret algorithm to ethnically profile visa applicants. An internal watchdog @MinBZ warned them not to but they were ignored. @LHReports obtained the internal documents to prove it lighthousereports.com/invest…
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See the photographs that prove @Frontex leadership knew all about Aegean pushbacks of asylum seekers but chose cover up over confronting an EU member state. @LHreports uncovers a major European scandal 🧵
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The EU is facilitating a deadly deportation machine in Turkey that is sending 100s of thousands of Afghans back to the Taliban & Syrians to ongoing conflict
A new investigation from @LHreports & partners reveals millions of euros spent on a system of abuse and forced returns 🧵
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REVEALED: The director of the European coast guard and border guard agency @Frontex is being investigated by the EU anti-corruption watchdog (OLAF), according to information obtained by @LHReports, @Mediapart and @derspiegel
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A casual selfie aboard a Cessna led us to a private jet at the heart of Europe's spyware scandal. We used its flight history to plot the growth of a surveillance giant & reveal a secret deal with one of the world's worst militias lighthousereports.nl/investi…
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NEW: Afghans who worked for a French-led secret intelligence cell for years have been abandoned by France following the Taliban takeover
The little-known spy unit, known as Shamshad, has come to light after being kept quiet by the French govt for years lighthousereports.com/invest…
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While the world's universities rightly offer places to Ukrainian students, at least 4 of their African counterparts, from the same Unis, have been jailed in Poland just for crossing the border to escape a war 🧵
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The border between Poland & Belarus is a deathtrap. Much of the EU has written off the people caught in it as ‘weapons’ in a hybrid war waged by a dictator. In an in-depth investigation @LHreports reconstructed the final days & life stories of the dead
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In Croatia, we filmed 1st ever high-res footage of a violent pushback at the border with Bosnia Herzegovina. Forensic examination of the video reveals that the men had equipment & uniforms consistent with a branch of the Croatian police called Intervention Police
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Our reporting shows that these clandestine forces aren't masked vigilantes but police units who report to EU governments. The operations are denied in public but financed & equipped from EU budgets
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If you scraped a broad X-section of social media related to QAnon what would those millions of posts tell you about the spread of viral conspiracies across Europe?
🧵 Come find out as months of work at @LHReports & @bellingcat breaks the surface
lighthousereports.nl/investi…
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Financial speculators are pushing millions of people into hunger, flooding into commodity markets & exacerbating rising food prices. @LHReports reveals the scale of #HungerProfiteers & the lobbying that sabotaged efforts to stop investors gambling with food 🧵
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Following the West’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, Germany pledged it wouldn’t leave its local Afghan staff behind
But 2 years on, we reveal Germany has been rejecting pleas for evacuation from former employees – despite its own development agency assessing them to be at risk
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When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in Aug 2021, ex-NGO worker Amir* hoped the Netherlands, which funded his work on women's rights, would help him flee
16 months later, he was abducted by 4 men as his family looked on in horror
Hours later, he was dead lighthousereports.com/invest…
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1/ Europe’s border agency Frontex denies involvement in pushbacks but their own database shows the exact opposite. By analysing @Frontex data @LHReports can reveal how illegal push backs are registered and concealed
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New Investigation: The unprecedented freedoms the EU gave to refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were widely celebrated. What wasn’t said at the time was how this policy was drawn up to intentionally exclude non-Europeans 🧵 lighthousereports.nl/investi…
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Italy’s premier @GiorgiaMeloni insisted in the wake of the deaths by drowning & exposure that EU border agency Frontex hadn’t sent an emergency warning: “Do you think Italy could have saved the lives of 60+ people including some children and didn't?”
Sulla tragedia di Cutro ho sentito e letto delle ricostruzioni francamente surreali. Vi spiego cosa è successo e cosa intende fare il Governo. Ascoltate.
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What connects hit Netflix doc-maker @michaelpollan, award-winning Nigerian environmentalist @NnimmoB and 2 UN human rights experts?
They’ve all been targeted by a secretive PR company paid to downplay the dangers of pesticides - with US taxpayer money lighthousereports.com/invest…
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A damning report by the EU anti-fraud watchdog OLAF about the EU border agency Frontex has been kept secret for months. It was leaked to @LHreports @derspiegel @fragdenstaat and we have decided to publish it to enable public scrutiny. Some highlights 👇cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/medi…
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NEW INVESTIGATION finds that low income neighbourhoods throughout the Netherlands have been singled out and run through secretive algorithms to detect welfare fraud. Netherlands hasn't shaken its addiction to "digital dystopia" experiments lighthousereports.nl/investi…
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Nine survivors of the Pylos shipwreck are in jail in Greece charged with smuggling.But who was really responsible for the fatally overloaded ship?
@LHReports & partners reveal the central role played by a Libyan general with whom EU leaders want to partner lighthousereports.com/invest…
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Trained by Russia, the Syrian military has flattened vast parts of former opposition neighborhoods in the name of de-mining. Our new investigation reveals the extent of the destruction, which experts say could be a war crime.
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A joint investigation led by @LHreports with @SZ @DomaniGiornale @lemondefr @SkyNews @el_pais found serious contradictions in the official account & evidence that both Italy & Frontex misstated what they knew about storm weather & the boat’s condition
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NEW: Hundreds of Afghan commandos who were trained & paid by the British for years have been left behind in Afghanistan by the UK
Our new investigation reveals that dozens have been targeted by the Taliban – and some killed
Thread🧵
lighthousereports.com/invest…
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We captured these ‘shadow armies’ on film by @LHreports in a joint investigation w/ Swiss TV #srfrundschau @derspiegel @ARDstudioWien @Novossti @pointer_kroncrv @ARD_Presse #Monitor @disinfaux @Libe @vijestihr in Croatia, Romania & Greece
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In total @LHReports & partners filmed 11 pushbacks in Croatia. Drone footage shows a police officer covering his face with a balaclava before forcing at least 15 people over the border to Bosnia
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People all over the Netherlands have been flagged for welfare fraud based on a crude spreadsheet & some unscientific prejudices. How do we know? We took the algorithm apart & rebuilt it. Score yourself & see
fraudescorekaart.lighthouser…
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On 3 Oct this year, Abdullah Mohammed, 19, tried to enter Bulgaria in the hope of claiming asylum
His group was pushed back. Footage shows some of them throwing stones at the Bulgarian border in protest.
A shot rings out; Abdullah falls to the ground
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Bad weather, lack of life vests & overcrowding are signs of distress under Frontex's & Italy’s own maritime rules; still the maritime authorities did not launch a search and rescue operation. That decision had deadly consequences.
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Who knew what, when? The official account is that ‘Summer Love’ – a wooden Turkish leisure boat – sank in rough seas off the coast of Crotone 6hrs after being sighted by a Frontex plane that reported the vessel “showed no signs of distress.”
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Our first story on Frontex revealed how it was switching to drones to evade rescue operations in the Central Med. Denials, big spending, misuse of tech, inversion of humanitarian responsibilities
theguardian.com/world/2019/a…
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Spain uses a secretive AI system to search for people shirking work & claiming sickness benefits. A new investigation by @LHReports & @elconfidencial examined the opaque algorithmic doctor used to work out how it surveils the health of millions lighthousereports.com/invest…
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Bulgaria says its border guards were at the scene but deny firing the bullet
But by forensically analysing footage & gathering eyewitness accounts, @LHreports & partners have established that the shot came from the exact spot where Bulgarian guards were standing
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NEW: Afghans promised resettlement by the UK nearly a year ago have suffered torture & death awaiting relocation
Not one person has been accepted & evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office scheme launched with such fanfare this Jan
THREAD
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The EU significantly finances Croatia’s border operations, including Koridor. Open source evidence reveals that Intervention Police who are part of Koridor stay at hotels along the border when they are on mission. Hotels & per diems are paid out of the EU's Internal Security Fund
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One video shows a French police boat in Dunkirk harbour circling a dinghy with around 25 people aboard, creating a wake which floods it
Panicked passengers attempt to bail the water out using their shoes
Experts say this could have caused mass deaths in water 14+ metres deep
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Local prosecutors in Italy have launched two investigations: one looking into the reasons why no rescue ship was sent before the shipwreck; the other focused on alleged smugglers, where four suspects face charges
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Based on testimonies of police involved in border operations, violence is regularly used against asylum seekers & their property is stolen/confiscated, later burned at dumpsites. The whistleblowers said these actions were part of a national operation codenamed ‘Koridor’.
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Letter leaked to @LHReports & @Spiegel reveals Frontex gave away the location of migrant boats to Libya's coastguard more than 2000 times in 3yrs, while watching them whip, beat & shoot at people fleeing Libya
spiegel.de/ausland/wie-front…
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For all publications of this investigation, please visit @LHreports website lighthousereports.com/invest…
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Frontex detected the vessel by tracking satellite phone calls made to Turkey & reported it as a “possible migrant vessel” with no safety jackets visible showing a “significant thermal response” from below deck, indicating an “unusual” number of people on board.
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EU member states are under the legal obligation to investigate at-risk vessels in their Search & Rescue zone. If Italy had investigated the Summer Love it would have been clear that it was in deep trouble in rough seas with engine problems & almost no life vests
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Sultan Ahmed Almolki from Syria wouldn’t survive the cold and died in his brothers arms
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Almost a year ago, 40 men were left to die in a cell during a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez. The deaths came as Mexico’s migrant detention system expands with US-backing. @LHreports @elpasomatters & @LaVerdadJZ reveal what really happened that night
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We interviewed Abdullah, who received life-changing injuries to his hand & arm. A medical report states that the bullet passed through his hand & entered his chest, lodging 1cm from his heart.
He believes Bulgarian guards shot him with the intention to kill
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Frontex monitors the Ionian with planes & drones to detect suspicious boats. After its aircraft Eagle1 took off on Feb 25 it encountered “strong winds" hours before it located the Summer Love, a confidential report we obtained shows.
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But what @Frontex concealed after the fact was that the pilot warned of strong winds, even before spotting the overcrowded wooden vessel with nearly 200 people on board. Boats like the Summer Love typically have space for 16 people.
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In Romania, @LHReports used remote camera tech typically used by hunters to capture footage of Romanian police units pushing people back to Serbia. The videos are supported by testimony from the people who said they were seriously assaulted by police during these pushbacks.
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People abducted on the street for being black, pregnant women & children left to die in the desert
Deserted, Europe’s Deadly Migration Policy, a documentary produced by @LHreports @BR_presse @ndr @DeutscheWelle, reveals the deadly realities of Brussels’ migration deals
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Many thanks to all who worked on this: @AbbasAz92809551 @Obonnel @saracreta @bash_deeb @YoussefGz @MaudJullien @LenaKampf Kristiana Ludwig @MariaMartinD @SiobhanRobbins @JackSapoch @simonsalesprado @TomasStatius @dthiesing @klaasvandijken @DaniVerdu @Lola_Hierro
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The model helps demonstrate that Italian authorities were fully aware of the risks the boat was facing in real time. The data captured by the Frontex plane was live streamed to Italian authorities, documents show.
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Surveillance is a matter of life & death in Myanmar. What role did European companies & EU funds play in providing the military junta with the spy tech it used to counter mass protest against the coup it staged
@LHReports investigates>>
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Satellite analysis shows that almost half of the buildings in Qaboun were destroyed since the government recaptured the area in 2017. It was reduced to rubble not through war, but the government’s “peace.”
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Together with their uncle Feras Alghazy they jumped off the ship. “For 30 to 40 seconds, we heard screaming and shouting of children, women and men. After 30 seconds to a minute, we didn’t hear the sound of anyone. All the people sank.” Images by @SkyNews
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Spain has been gripped by the eco-disaster in Europe’s largest salt lagoon. In a new investigation we reveal the role played by runaway industrial pork farming & the repeated refusal by authorities to tackle it #MarMenor
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With @leMonde we document how the “biolabs” conspiracy theory travelled from a now suspended US Twitter account into French QAnon channels. On the day of the invasion, the posts began to recast Russia’s war as an attack on fictional US biolabs in Ukraine
lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article…
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THREAD We investigated SwissArms: exported as civilian/humanitarian goods but in reality used against civilians in Rio’s favelas, by the Saudis in #Yemen & wreaking havoc on markets in Afghanistan
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To demonstrate what the overcrowded boat would have looked like to those watching surveillance footage & better understand the circumstances on board before & during the wreck, we made a 3D-model of Summer Love
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Syrians signing up to fight with Russia in Ukraine are not all willing recruits. Our new investigation with @SIRAJ_SYRIA & @Telegraph found Syrians forced to enlist in order to receive unpaid wages or free detained relatives telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2…
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22-yo Assad Almulqi who travelled with his 6-yo brother Sultan recalls the moment everything went wrong. “It was dark. The ship leaned to one side and half of it went underwater. It sank in seconds.” Images by @SkyNews
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Farmers protests across Europe seized headlines and hijacked the political agenda. But once the action moved from the streets to the negotiating table, who spoke for them? We profile power brokers claiming to represent farmers🧵lighthousereports.com/invest…
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For a thorough breakdown of our open source methods, investigators @bash_deeb and @Jacksapoch compiled a twitter thread explaining their work
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Frontex is one of the EU’s best funded agencies, projecting itself as the firm-but-fair guardian of Europe’s borders. A technocratic panacea to a continent’s migration anxiety. The reality is starkly different as our joint investigation with @derspiegel & @libe reveals
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We carried out this investigation, combining #OSINT & ground reporting, with @ARDde @SkyNews @thetimes @RFERL @DomaniGiornale @LeMondefr.
For a full list of the talented team + links to partner stories see this link
lighthousereports.nl/investi…
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THREAD. Looming food crisis caused by invasion of #Ukraine seen by “Big Ag” (agricultural lobby & their political allies) as an opportunity to throttle the EU’s Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy. But this could compromise future food security + puts animal feed over food. We explain:
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Nigeena (23) from Afghanistan got married just 4 months earlier to Seyar. She was holding her husband's hand to stay above water. The couple almost made it but a wave swept Seyar away. Days later she found his black sneakers on the beach.
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The jackets worn by police officers caught on video conducting a violent pushback match the specific descriptions found in the EU’s tender database. And in 2018, the EU allocated €6.8 million to Croatia to finance daily allowances and overtime payments for officers
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The Croatian gov established an Independent Monitoring Mechanism, a condition of EU funding, to track activities of the police at the borders. But reporting reveals 2/5 organizations making the pre-scheduled monitoring visits receive funding from Croatia’s interior ministry.
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Our months-long investigations revealing rights abuses & institutional failure by Frontex have brought the agency to the brink of having its budget blocked by the European Parliament. Power of collaborative journalism w/@derspiegel, @bellingcat
European Parliament has suspended the discharge of the Frontex budget, because of the delays in recruiting fundamental rights monitors and concerns over complicity in human rights violations.
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Job alert 📢 We are hiring three fellows to join our #OSINT, #data & reporting teams! If you’re passionate about collaboration & experimenting with investigative tools, apply for our new #fellowship program by April 8 lighthousereports.com/lighth…
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The no. of people travelling through the Balkans to claim asylum in Europe hit its highest since 2015 last year – & the route is now more deadly
We've found that a growing number of bodies of those attempting the journey are piling up in morgues or being buried without a trace
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We sourced phone videos from witnesses standing near Abdullah. They show 2 vehicles on the Bulgarian side, 1 is a Land Rover used by Bulgarian border police, the other a Bulgarian army truck
2 people are next to the vehicles, their uniforms match those of Bulgarian border forces
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The documents also reveal that one of the translators provided to survivors when they gave evidence was a member of the coast guard himself
Other translators were local residents who spoke Arabic & other languages & were hastily sworn in
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The Dutch QAnon channel’s main sources of information are US QAnon Telegram channels such as Pepe Lives Matter, Truth Social, and GhostEzra. This is the case for most European channels.
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New: How Europe's war on migration saw nearly 10,000 asylum seekers arrested for steering boat-crossings - some jailed for 50+ years. Worth noting that this investigation was partly incubated in Lighthouse Sessions 🧵
ALT @julie__bourdin @ejcnet @Malichudis @lorenzodago @Libe
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Refugees from Afghanistan, Syria & Iraq risk their lives stowing away on ferries bound for the Italian ports in the hope of claiming asylum
Instead, when caught by authorities, they are locked up on ferries & sent back to Greece without any procedure, in breach of interntnl law
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How did QAnon take root in Europe? Why do we have conspiracy theories? How can we confront viral disinfo? @LHReports & @Bellingcat convene leading experts for a two-day international seminar to tackle these questions & dive into the data
REGISTER>bitly.ws/vCsf
ALT @bellingcat @EliotHiggins @jamesbridle @daniel_howden @DBenscoter @OClairouin @QOrigins @AlexandraGeese @travis_view
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This research has been done by a group of great journalists & researchers: @bash_deeb @JackSapoch @N_Voegele @stluedke @g_christides @disinfaux @AndreaBeer2 @SrdjanGovedrica ...
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New investigation reveals how Europe’s biggest meat companies benefit from subsidies while avoiding tax on €100s of millions in earnings, deploying “aggressive tax avoidance”
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