Student Investigations Lab Project
The Investigations Lab’s Amnesty International Digital Verification Corps team worked with Forensic Architecture to geolocate and verify incidents of migrant driftbacks, described as when migrants and refugees crossing the Aegean Sea are “intercepted within Greek territorial waters, or arrested after they arrive on Greek shores, beaten, stripped of their possessions, and then forcefully loaded onto life rafts with no engine and left to drift back to the Turkish coast (Forensic Architecture).”
Students were tasked with:
- Cross checking the dates, times, and boat unit numbers provided by Forensic Architecture and the Aegean Boat Report with available media on refugees arriving at the Turkish border and being sent back towards Greece.
- Geolocating available media on refugees arriving at the Turkish border and being sent back towards Greece.
Partners
Drift-backs in the Aegean Sea
Asylum seekers crossing the Aegean Sea are intercepted within Greek waters, or arrested after they arrive on Greek shores, beaten, stripped of their possessions, and then forcefully loaded onto life rafts and left to drift back to the Turkish coast. FA/Forensis verified and mapped evidence for over 1000 such ‘drift-backs’, demonstrating the scale of this violent and illegal border defense practice. Video produced by Forensic Architecture.
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News
June 21, 2023
Not the Wind, Not the Sea: Cruelty Caused the Pylos Shipwreck
A Syrian refugee camp in the outskirts of Athens, Greece. Since 2011, more than 6.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee their country and another 6.7 million remain internally displaced.
July 18, 2022
Turkey says it has recent drone footage of Greek pushbacks
A screenshot taken from the Aegean Boat Report Blog of the group of Afghan migrants about to be rescued by the Turkish coast guard from the Aegean Sea. Source: Aegean Boat Report Blog.