Supported projects

BRUSSELS – This investigation shows that local opposition to new reception centres for asylum seekers is often not a spontaneous neighbourhood protest. In 23 of the 26 Flemish municipalities where a new reception centre has opened since 2016, Vlaams Belang actively organised or supported the protest ...

KINSHASA – Échos du Silence explores the history surrounding human remains from the Congo that have been held in Belgium since the colonial period, and addresses issues relating to provenance, restitution, the transfer of knowledge and the dignity of the dead.

BRUSSELS - Around 50,000 people are currently homeless in our country. We know they are there, and we seem to have come to terms with their situation. But why, exactly? Why is homelessness so low on the political agenda? Why are we failing to get these people off the streets? Are homeless people no ...

ROSIGNANO SOLVAY / CANTABRIA / LA ROCHELLE - In Italy, Solvay’s Rosignano plant, operating since 1912, produces soda ash and high-purity hydrogen peroxide for the semiconductor industry. Decades of legally discharged limestone and gypsum residues created the site’s famous “white beaches”, turning ...

SYRACUSE – The strictest European migration policy ever came into force in June. Through the Return Regulation, the EU is expanding its cooperation with third countries even further. NGOs have long been witnessing the human impact of externalisation policies, whereby border controls are outsourced ...

BRUSSELS / SAMOS – How has violence at Europe’s external borders become normalised, and what institutional, political and psychological mechanisms perpetuate it?

TASHKENT / TERMZ / KABUL – The Taliban’s Qosh Tepa Canal is without a doubt a mega-project. It is being built in Afghanistan but will be fed by water from the Amu Darya – the region’s largest river, which lies on the border with Uzbekistan. For Uzbek farmers, this threatens to be a disaster. Europe ...

KORTRIJK / WEVELGEM - The airport of Kortrijk-Wevelgem is the least well-known of the three regional airports in Flanders. It is considerably smaller than the airports in Antwerp and Ostend, particularly in terms of passenger numbers. Yet Kortrijk-Wevelgem is not spared from criticism either.

LEUVEN / LOOSDRECHT - Hooligans, online hate-mongers and orthodox Christians are rallying behind the call for ‘remigration’. For some figures and groups within the far right, the use of violence appears to be no obstacle.

POLINKHOVE / ANTWERP – Every Flemish citizen has the right to add a question or a proposal to the municipal council’s agenda. Research by Apache shows that around a quarter of Flemish towns and municipalities do not have regulations setting out the conditions for doing so.

ZUGDIDI - The 250-kilometre border between Abkhazia and Georgia has been dividing the two countries for decades, making life increasingly difficult for the communities living along it. Caught between Russian pressure and the manoeuvrings of the ruling Georgian Dream party, those living near the ...

HAVANA - The US is imposing an oil embargo on Cuba with the aim of bringing about regime change. Professor Domínguez López of the University of Havana stresses that the current problems cannot be viewed in isolation from more than sixty years of US sanctions. Those sanctions have never given Cuba ...

SANTIAGO DE CHILE - On the American continent, the large northward migration flow is gradually drying up, due to Trump’s tough anti-immigration measures. But what about other migration flows in the region, between Latin American countries themselves?

BOGOTA - Just as in the rest of Latin America, Pentecostal churches are on the rise in Colombia. They promote a personal relationship with God, place great emphasis on the emotional aspect, and promote prophecies and miracles. However, many of these churches also have clear political objectives.

KAMPALA - Uganda has for years hosted the largest refugee population in Africa, long celebrated as a regional success story thanks to its progressive open-door policy. But sweeping global cuts to development aid, most dramatically the dismantling of USAID under Trump, have plunged that system of ...

TERVUREN / LUBUMBASHI - The increasing pressure on the Africa Museum to return artefacts has taken a new turn. The US, Congo and the EU are keen to digitise the museum's geological archives from the colonial era and gain access to information about the subsoil of Central Africa and its potential ...

TEHRAN / BRUSSELS / MWANZA / TOKYO – Whether by lorry, bicycle, plane, boat, rickshaw or motorbike, they flout prejudices, rigid traditions and absurd laws. All over the world, courageous women are setting out on their journeys. They challenge gender roles, transform their surroundings and gain ...

KHARTOUM - Almost a year after the recapture of Khartoum by Sudanese government forces from the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), the capital lies largely in ruins — a ghost town scarred by conflict. Arnaud De Decker found widespread devastation and spoke to residents who endured the occupation and to ...

PORTO-NOVO - Can the close partnership between Belgium and Benin serve as a model for sustainable European-African cooperation? The failure of European states in Sahel countries such as Mali and Niger has shown that military cooperation alone does not work. In Benin, Belgium offers not only military ...

ANTWERP - The Organisation Todt (OT) was a German paramilitary government organisation named after its founder, Fritz Todt. The group was involved in major construction projects (such as the Atlantic Wall), security assignments (such as guarding prisoner-of-war and concentration camps) and military ...

BRUSSELS / BIAŁOWIEŻA / LESBOS - Security agents abandoning people in the desert. Coast guards destroying boats and leaving those on board stranded on the open sea. Slave markets with refugees. Since the start of the “European refugee crisis”, violence at our external borders, and in distant ...

QAMISHLO - March 2014. During a report in Rojava, the Kurdish region of Syria, things go wrong. IS militants storm the town hall and blow themselves up. Ten years later, we return to Qamishlo to see how the events of that day have changed the lives of those involved, and what remains of the ...

AUSTIN - Living Under Ice tells the story of several ordinary Texans who are targeted by Trump's stricter immigration policy. Belgian filmmaker Louise Van Assche, who lives and works in Texas, teams up with co-director Kwinten Gernay to follow a number of families living on the border with Mexico ...

MINSK - In this investigation, journalists based in five different European countries investigate ties between the EU and Belarus, with a closer look on how far political, economical and social connections have been impacted by the war in Ukraine.

CHELEM - Chelem, a small coastal town on the Gulf of Mexico, recently rebranded by Trump as the “Gulf of America”, is the stage for an unexpected reversal. Where once Mexicans journeyed north in search of a better life, today Americans are heading south, drawn by affordable healthcare, lower living ...

BUENOS AIRES - For decades, Argentinians have been plagued by monstrous price increases. With a solemn promise to put an end to hyperinflation, Javier Milei came to power at the end of 2023. Since then, Milei has been dismantling the state step by step, part of his libertarian agenda that is ...

MARRAKESH – The aim of this investigation is to trace and shed light on the role of European funds and supplies played in strengthening the Moroccan regime's control capabilities in matters of security.

JERUSALEM / BEIRUT / DAMASCUS – The geopolitical and humanitarian situation in the Middle East has worsened since the terror attacks of 7 October 2023. International organisations have documented large-scale war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine. Meanwhile, Israel has ...

NEW YORK CITY / GENEVA - The West may not have fully realised it, but the United Nations is undergoing a revival. Not that everything will remain the same, because Beijing seems to be finding enough allies to change the organisation from within. 

PANAMA CITY / BOGOTA / SAN JOSE  - While European leaders keep dragging their feet, some countries in Latin America—despite numerous obstacles and lack of funding—are hard at work to restore their natural environments. Tim Vernimmen visited three of them in the hope they might teach us how to do ...