Supported projects

Faced with poverty and lack of opportunities, young Bangladeshis often dream of a better life in Europe that will allow them to provide for their families. Dalaals or ‘travel agents’ encourage and capitalise upon these hopes. Among those that take the risky journey to Italy known as 'the game' are hundreds of unaccompanied minors. The reality that greets them is often one of misery, exploitation, and slavery.

Le Monde and The Investigative Desk delved into the multi-layered world of Big Tobacco’s 21st century astroturfing. They discovered that under the guise of defending individual freedom, fake consumer organisations are promoting e-cigarettes. 

SAMOS-KOS - This cross-border independent investigation focuses on the newly opened “closed controlled access center” on the island of Samos. The first “pilot project of the European Union” that opened on the 18th of September this year and was entirely financed (43 Million Euros) by a fund of the EU-Commission, which vowed to “No Moria Morias”, after Europe's biggest refugee Camp Moria, on the Greek island of Lesvos burned down last year.  

Beekeepers in Europe are struggling. Over the past decades, European policies, and especially the Common Agricultural Programme (CAP), have promoted the industrialisation of agriculture, leaving no space for bees to thrive and exposing them to many harms, such as pesticides. 

GERMANY - xHamster is one of the most visited porn websites in Germany and the world. The xHamster bosses have been in hiding for years. Now research reveals for the first time two leading figures behind Germany's most visited porn site.

CAIRO - After Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was elected President in May 2014, several amendments to the public procurement law were made that allowed the Egyptian military to further strengthen its grip on the economy. The amendments helped companies affiliated with the army reap the lion’s share of major public contracts, including the construction of the new administrative capital in Cairo, real estate projects, highways and infrastructure, that were granted under direct, non-competitive bidding.

LUBLIN, POLAND - The export of waste to Poland is booming. Among these exports, illegal shipments frequently occur. Companies from Germany, the UK, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden have illegally exported waste to Poland in recent years.

What is the involvement of Belgian jihadists in the genocide that IS carried out against the Jezidi community? Now that the Belgian parliament has acknowledged the genocide, Brenda Stoter Boscolo and Bruno Struys went to Iraqi Kurdistan with that question in mind. They talked to official sources, but above all had hours of interviews with the Yezidis themselves.

This transnational three-part investigation looks at agricultural biotechnologies, better known as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) from the African perspective using Burkina Faso, South Africa and Uganda as case studies.

Even after the anniversary of 9/11, one question remains unanswered: how did Osama bin Laden manage to carry out that murderous raid against the most powerful country in the world? Exceptional testimonies from the heart of the al-Qaeda terrorist movement provide an answer.