Supported projects

BRUSSELS - How did we come to pay gold for a drug whose effectiveness has not been proven? This is the story of Remdesivir, a drug developed by the American company Gilead Sciences with large public funds to combat Ebola, and in July approved by the European Medicines Agency with "conditional ...

LILONGWE - Taxation treaties that Malawi signed with other countries over the last fifty years are costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars, since they have opened up opportunities for multinational corporations to reduce their tax liability through tax avoidance.

BRUSSELS - This story tells how European border and migration policy is making life difficult for people on the Balkan route. Officially, the route is closed, but this research shows how it is still active.

BRUSSELS - Europe's Natura 2000 protected areas are groaning under nitrogen emissions from livestock farming. Meanwhile, farmers near nature reserves fear for their future. Due to conflicting policy choices, agriculture and nature conversation have become diametrically opposed. The call for a long ...

ROME - Investigation into cash flows and funds destined for the Islamic State's revival plan.

KYIV - After the fall of a self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria dozens of thousands of foreign fighters fighting in the ranks of Islamic State or ISIS disappeared. They used smugglers, contacts and networks to leave the country. Many of them were looking for safe havens where they can take a break ...

STEKENE - It is not allowed to live in a recreation area. Yet people still live in a chalet or a caravan, or sometimes in a brick weekend residence. Sometimes these are people who find themselves in precarious financial circumstances. Pensioners, people coming out of a divorce, people who are ill ...

Illegally logged teak from South Sudan goes to India where it is made into furniture before it could end up in stores in Europe. Indian timber traders illegally source the timber from East Africa and export it as an 'Indian' product after processing.

CAPE TOWN - As dam levels dropped rapidly at the end of 2017 and Cape Town faced the looming threat of becoming the first major city where taps would run dry, households were forced to pull out all the stops to save water. But Coca Cola and other big industrial users were given a free pass.

ACCRA, ABUJA – This investigation exposes a hidden network of Chinese control and ownership of many industrial fishing vessels operating in Ghanaian and Nigerian waters in contravention of local laws.

DAVOS / ROSTOCK / GOTHENBURG - Climate change is making European summers ever drier and hotter, and not just in the south: During the extremely dry summer of 2018, the drought was mostly limited to the part of Europe north of the Alps. In many places, the summers of 2019 and 2020 were again ...

BRUSSELS - The investigation of Annika Joeres and Susanne Götze illuminates a neglected subject of climate policy. They show what a powerful player the Lobby for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has become for the European Climate Policy.

KATHMANDU - As countries in Eastern Europe increasingly face the problem of lack of workforce, they are turning to a new source of workers – Asian countries, especially Nepal. But often those workers are abused on the way during their journey to Europe and exploited in the destination countries ...

AMSTERDAM - While the Covid recovery is increasing pressure on public finances and raising the prospect of tax increases, this new research from The Investigative Desk with support from the University of Bath shows, for the first time on this scale, which tax avoidance methods the world’s four ...

This investigation blows the whistle on the phenomenon of brokers who, with the complicity of Turkish civil servants, help to move forward the citizenship applications of Syrians in return for bribes. On the other hand, more than five thousand Syrians’ files remained pending until they got cancelled ...

BELGRADE - Writer and historian Irene van der Linde and documentary photographer Nicole Segers travel in the footsteps of the British writer Rebecca West through former Yugoslavia and Albania. With West's magnum opus Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942) in their hands, they go in search of the meaning ...

NAIROBI - European media regularly report on human rights violations by multinational companies 'from here'. Various Flemish media reported that a Brussels construction company would engage in forced labour in Qatar in preparation for the World Cup. Swedish journalists Tobias Åkerblom and Moa ...

An Indonesian state-owned aircraft manufacturer allegedly paid more than 10 million euro in kickbacks to dozens of high-ranked politicians and army officials. The company disguised the payments as a ‘marketing fee’, using fictitious partners.

SOMONIYON - Despite its water abundance and the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in improving Tajikistan’s water access and supply, millions of Tajik residents still struggle to access running water, let alone clean water.

A Dutch fishing giant is involved in a corruption affair and tax evasion scheme concerning fishing quotas in Namibia. The money trail goes via Poland and Iceland.