Archive on Border Violence and Human Rights Violations

Introductory Text.

HOW TO USE

The database contains articles from news outlets, activist groups, and NGOs that reported on the situation of people on the move in the Aegean with a focus on human rights violations and border violence since 2018.

Information in the database can be filtered and sorted by different parameters:

  • Topic: All articles have been categorized into different topics that the respective articles deal with. Under the section “Topic” you can choose one or more categories, like pushback, camps, or shipwrecks.
  • Event: If an article was referring to a specific event, e.g. the Moria fire or a specific pushback it can be filtered over “Event”.
  • Publication Date: Articles can be filtered by a specific time period. If you want information on what happened in the Aegean for a specific week, month or year, set the desired time frame under “Publication Date”.
  • Source: If you only want to see articles from specific sources, you can choose one or more under “Source”.

METHODOLOGY

The building and the extension of the archive include the following steps:

  • Phase 1 Bildung up the database: As a basis for the database 247 articles that were collected by us since 2018 were used. First, their metadata (title, description, publication date & source) was extracted. In a second step, sources that are unreliable and deleted web pages were removed. The remaining articles were categorised based on their content and cross-checked if they are related to a specific event (e.g. pushback). In the final step, the categories were defined and the classification of the original articles has been reassigned according to the final definitions.
  • Phase 2 Extension of the database into the future: To extend the database feeds and alerts has been set up for the key reliable sources and final categories. The gathered articles will be cross-checked weekly if they fit into the database and are reliable. If they fulfill the criteria they will be added to the database.
  • Phase 3 Extension of the database into the past: With the reliable sources the website will be searched by several keywords (based on the categories and wording of the source) and older articles added to the database. Besides this general searches with the keyword will be done for specific timeframes to add information from other sources.

All definitions, and categories can be found here.

Something is missing?

The documentation of human rights violations and border violence is a joint effort. Many journalists, activists, NGOs, and individuals help to uncover the daily atrocities in the Aegean. If there is something missing or you want to use our data, please get in touch with us via archive@mare-liberum.org.

Mare Liberum i. A.

Gneisenaustraße 2a
10961 Berlin