Supported projects

KABUL - Each year, 115 tonnes of heroin from Afghan poppy fields is exported to Europe. Who wins? Who loses? And what is the impact of lucrative drug smuggling on people who live along this Balkan route?

KIGALI – Twenty years ago, on 7 April 1994, the Rwandan genocide began. The cartoonist Jeroen Janssen was in the country at the time. After publishing his first comic book about the genocide in 1997, the fact-based fictional story Muzungu, he had wanted to create a more in-depth book. Because there ...

BUCHAREST - The EU's focus on achieving energy independence is endangering the environment and the health of its citizens due to the continued exploitation of European uranium resources.

BRUSSELS - An investigation by VRT journalist Luc Pauwels shows that since November official Opel dealers have been modifying polluting software in one of the Opel models..

LONDON - The Special Branch Files Project is a live archive of declassified files focusing on the surveillance of political activists and campaigners.

LISBON – Each year, hundreds of African and South American minors come to Europe in search of a better life and professional success in the European football leagues, which they see as the new El Dorado. In doing so, they expose themselves to the cross-national, multimillion-dollar structures of ...

ANKARA - When you think of development aid, you think of poor countries. But the biggest receiver of EU development aid happens to be the 18th biggest economy of the world: Turkey. In 2013, Turkey received 2.4 billion Euros...

CANNES - Despite a European directive on joint jurisdiction on confiscated goods, actual European monitoring is virtually nonexistent. European criminal organisations take advantage of this lack of solid jurisdiction.

DONETSK - Russian-backed separatists have plundered the rebel-held regions in Ukraine's industrial heartland, creating an economy characterised by fear, hypocrisy and contradiction. How has business transformed since the rebels took control of Ukraine's east?

BRUSSELS - The four-part series SPUL investigates what doping use does to an athlete. Instead of judging or condemning - which is usually the case - SPUL goes in search of what happens to people when they start doping.

CALABAR - According to a 2013 study conducted by Paris-based charity Foot Solidaire, around 15,000 young boys from West Africa are trafficked to Europe every year by bogus football agents who promise them trials with top football clubs in exchange for large sums money from their families.

STANARI - While the Western Balkans have a widely untapped potential for green energy, Balkan governments like Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina are locking national energy systems into outdated and heavily polluting coal infrastructures for decades to come.

LAMPEDUSA - The current events surrounding the refugee flow cannot be ignored by the media, conversations and our thoughts. At the same time, the reception of refugees is only the first phase. The integration, the second phase, is the common thread through this documentary about the refugees in ...

The Dutch banking giant Rabobank is accused of profiting off the back of fraud, forgery and the systematic abuse of hundreds of Romania's poorest citizens, in a huge and aggressive land grab in Eastern Europe.

GHENT - Since Bulgaria, the country with the lowest wages in Europe, joined the Union in 2007, around 15,000 Bulgarians have emigrated every year in search of a better future in the West. However, many end up on the margins of our society, camping in remote locations in and around cities.

SOECHOEMI/TSHKINVALI - In view of the tensions between Russia and the West, the importance of the so-called "frozen conflicts" in the turbulent Caucasus is increasing. How is daily life in the rebellious Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been de facto independent since the ...

MADRID - What does the voice of a person reveal about his or her identity? Is it like DNA or fingerprint? How does the brain interpret voices? Are computers better than humans at doing it? Dozens of controversial judicial cases ring the alarm on the misuse of voices in courts.

BRUSSELS - Steel producers and other industrial sectors must comply with the EU's new emission rules by 2016. However, the steel industry giants have reduced their obligations following a successful lobbying campaign within the EU's decision-making process.

BUDAPEST – An increasing number of Hungarians are moving to other EU countries, with the United Kingdom being the most popular destination. Last year, emigration increased by 46 per cent. Those who leave say that it is very difficult to make ends meet in Hungary, but corruption, new laws restricting ...

MANILA - There is a vast global and growing demand for webcam child sex. Every hour at least 750,000 pedophiles and other sex predators are cyber hunting minors. Investigative journalist Pierre Vandenbrugghe (alias) descends into this vastly expanding, new branch of cyber pornography in the ...

JUAREZ - "How much you own, that's how much you're worth. That's how it works here. For us poor people, there's no justice." Susana's daughter Lupita went into town 6 years ago to buy shoes. She never came back. There are thousands of Lupitas in Juárez, Mexico. Lynn Cornelis and Sofie Meelberghs ...

SAINT-LOUIS - Talibés are students in Senegal who are sent by their parents to specialized Koranic schools. There, however, they are often beaten by rogue Koran teachers. For their documentary, Arne Gillis, Wouter Elsen and Eneas Mentzel followed talibés at school and on the street and talked to ...

BRUSSELS - In his approach to the refugee crisis, State Secretary Theo Francken (N-VA) emphasizes return policy. With his Return Handbook, European Commission President Juncker also wants to put more emphasis on voluntary return. But is that plan realistic?

MERERANI - In the mines near Mererani in the north of Tanzania, miners search feverishly for tanzanite. Everyone hopes one day to find a beautiful large specimen of the unique gemstone and to become rich in one fell swoop. In recent years the government has taken extra measures to keep as much of ...

BRUSSELS - Disposable nappies are largely petroleum-based products and crammed ones create a huge pile of waste. But they are handy. What can environmentally conscious parents do? Eos Magazine knocked on the door of all the major manufacturers and found out who has the most sustainable disposable ...

PHNOM PENH - The jeans or denim jacket that you bought recently have likely been made in Cambodia. A strike of thousands of textile workers was violently suppressed there a year ago. Journalist Ate Hoekstra and photographer Kristof Vadino show that not much has changed since then.

BRUSSELS - "Whoever has a good résumé will find work anyway." This is what Belgian politician Bart De Wever said in the run-up to the elections of May 2014. But is that so? Especially for people over fifty it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a job, no matter how long their CV is.

KOBANI - War is not only waged with weapons but also through conflicting ideologies given to children in wartime education. Journalist Pieter Stockmans went to Syria and Turkey and found a struggle for land and values.

BRUSSELS - Refugees and migrants spend over €1 billion a year trying to reach Europe. Europeans pay a similar amount to keep them out. A few companies benefit handsomely from this process. The hope business is cruel and highly lucrative.

NOUAKCHOTT - Officially, slavery does no longer exists in Mauritania, a barren desert country in West Africa. However, according to Anti-Slavery International, at least 4% of the Mauritanians are still owned by a master. They are born as slaves and have never known freedom. Not even in their minds.