Supported projects

BELGIUM/SENEGAL - In 2012, 19-year-old Mamadou was one of the 5742 men, women and children expelled from Belgium. They ended up in the oblivion of public opinion. No news, good news. And if we may believe the responsible Secretary of State for migration Maggie De Block, the Belgian return policy is a huge success.

BELGIUM - In 2014 it will be exactly fifty years ago that the first Turkish labour migrants arrived in Ghent to work in the defunct textile factories. Today, more than 20,000 inhabitants of Ghent (about one in twelve) have their roots in Turkey. How Ghent became a small 'Turkey on the Leie' in half a century is the central question in this book about the people behind those numbers.

About one third of the natural vegetation on the island of Borneo, one of the most biodiverse places in the world, was lost in the past thirty years. Through the decades, scientists and conservationists working on the island have grown a thick skin, and came to realize that reserves will not suffice to save the rainforest.

In the region of the port of Ghent, the emission of CO2 and harmful particulate matter is related to the failure of European and international climate standards.

BELGIUM/KENYA - The idea that electronic waste is carelessly dumped in the remote corners of the globalised world is outdated. Everyone wants to get the materials out of our old computers and televisions, including the EU. Arthur Debruyne and Sam Sermon investigated illegal export, e-waste recycling in Kenya and Belgium, and the built-in obsolescence that gives electro-appliances an ever shorter lifespan.

BELGIUM - In the past year, a few dozen Muslim youths have left Antwerp for Syria to take part in the war there. Why do young people from Antwerp risk their lives in a gruesome war thousands of kilometres away from home? In De Standaard, Janine Meijer examines the motives of Antwerp jihad fighters.

MOROCCO - Random arrests, assault, raids, deportation to Algeria. The fate of many Sub-Saharan illegal and legal refugees in Morocco. Maithé Franco and Luca Putteman talked to victims and investigated what role Europe plays in this story.

BELGIUM - 17 Raids between 1982 and 1985, 28 dead, more than 40 injured, barely 175,000 euros in loot and no one convicted. The Nivelles Gang is the largest unresolved judicial file in Belgium. Hilde Geens did what someone rarely does: she read the judicial files about the Nivelles Gang and discovered that she was being deceived.

Investigative journalist Kristof Clerix (MO*) examined the espionage files of Prague, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Sofia and Warsaw looking for the best Brussels 007 stories from the 70s and 80s. Exceptionally, Belgian State Security and Military Intelligence Service put some authentic material at Clerix’ disposal. Clerix’ new book Spionage. Doelwit Brussel (‘Espionage. Target Brussels’) is a collection of nine true stories and also includes authentic archive documents and photos.

BELGIUM - Irem, Velten and Isabel. Photographer Yann Bertrand made portraits of them for a year in the preventorium in De Haan, at a pivotal moment in their lives. A thirty-year-old with cystic fibrosis, and two obese teenagers.