Supported projects

CONAKRY / RABAT - Thanks to Chinese investments, the West African nation of Guinea is on track for annual economic growth of 10 percent. But Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah does not want the country to become too dependent on China and is also inviting Europe to invest. Morocco, too, is undergoing ...

CAYAMBE – An investigation into Ecuador's flower trade reveals severe exploitation of workers and indigenous communities encircled by the plantations - and how European customers are misled about the true conditions behind the pesticide-laden blooms they are buying.

BUCHAREST / ROME / DHAKA – The investigation reveals Romania’s chaotic labour migration system pushes legal workers into illegality, creating conditions akin to modern slavery. Interviews and data show a network of recruiters, companies, and officials profiting from migrants' vulnerability while ...

SARDINIA / TUSCANY / ARAGON - This investigation exposes systemic exploitation of migrant agricultural workers in the pastoral sector, with fieldwork conducted in Italy and in Spain.

BRUSSELS - Bias in recruitment and unreliable selection methods remain a persistent problem that affects many job seekers, as journalist Wim Swinnen demonstrates. For Eos and Psyche&Brein, he delved into the way personnel selection is carried out in companies and organisations.

WARSAW / AMSTERDAM / ANTWERP - Europe’s growing labour shortages in sectors like agriculture, logistics, transport, and hospitality are increasingly being filled by a new and highly vulnerable group – migrant workers from Central Asia. Many travel via Poland and end up, through opaque and ...

AMSTERDAM / BRUSSEL / STOCKHOLM - The European approach to legislation on sex work is a complex patchwork of contrasting policies, each of which claims to prioritise the welfare of workers, but often falls short in practice.

BERLIN/PRAGUE – This investigation examines migration trends in the care sector, focusing on foreign workers in Germany, the migration of older people to the Czech Republic and the dependence of the Czech healthcare system on foreign professionals.

AMSTERDAM - What happens when one of the millions of migrant workers living and working in the Netherlands - often in dangerous jobs - is permanently injured in an accident at work? This investigation sheds light on workplace accidents among migrant workers in the Netherlands.

BERLIN - The new German Supply Chain Act requires all German companies to ensure that human rights are respected throughout their global supply chains. This means no child labour, no forced labour and no exploitation. But is this really the case?

HONG KONG / WARSAW - Filipino workers are increasingly being lured by word of mouth and social media accounts promoting jobs in Poland.

ANTWERP - In the summer of 2022, 174 Filipino, Turkish and Bangladeshi workers were discovered to be working illegally at Antwerp port in Belgium. It was the biggest number of modern slaves discovered in the country. Newspapers called it an ‘unprecedented case.’ This story looks at the ordeal of ...

VODNANY - In Babiš's poultry factories, there was an organised violation of the Labour Code, while the management of the poultry factories could not help but know that they were cooperating with the underworld in the exploitation of Vietnamese workers.

BUCHAREST - Facing an acute labor shortage and a drastic decrease in population, Romania has allowed tens of thousands of South and East Asian workers, from Vietnam, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, into the country. The investigation is following the path of Vietnamese and Indians workers ...

ANTALYA - Two shy young men start to work in an all-inclusive hotel. A new, absurd world opens up to them. Colourful swimsuits, an abundance of food and the management’s demands ensure they will never be the same again.

BRUSSELS - Last summer, a fire breather suddenly appeared in Brussels. Photographer Kristof Vadino became intrigued by the mysterious entertainer and started following the man.

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 ...

FALTECINI - Belgian police and army uniforms are made in Romanian factories with Belgian owners, by seamstresses who can barely make a living from their wages. What is wrong with our public tenders? "As long as price remains the most important award criterion, someone always pays the price.

LAGOS - This series of investigations exposes the consequences of yearlong corruption in the construction and oil sectors on Nigerian life conditions, and the dodgy relationship between oil businessmen and corrupt politicians in the country.

GHENT - The measures that Flemish universities have taken to lower the threshold for reporting transgressive behaviour are effective at first sight. The number of reports has increased, among others at the University of Ghent, because victims (dare to) report faster. However, that does not mean that ...

BARCELONA - Some 500 street vendors from Senegal, India and Pakistan work in the streets of Barcelona. Arkasha Keysers talked to them about fake sneakers, bad beer and the fear of a criminal record.

BRUSSELS - Vulnerable Bulgarian women are coming to Belgium and the Netherlands to live with elderly people who prefer to stay at home rather than go to a nursing home. They will care for these elderly people during the last years or months of their lives. This research is a case study of the ...

RABAT - Do we know where the carpet that decorates our living room comes from? In most cases we don't. Let alone that we know what price the carpet weavers are paid for it.

MAPUTO - In poverty-stricken Mozambique, young women are obliged to sell their bodies to wealthier or white men. A general wisdom with cliché status. But is such a simple analysis correct? What does international research say and what do the women themselves think about their sexual practices and ...

BRUSSELS - Flemish women with talent and leadership qualities rarely reach the top. Journalist Tine Maenhout, together with ten inspiring women who hold top positions today, investigates why this is still the case and how things can be improved in the future. 

During his training to become a general practitioner, Egmont Ruelens met several bus and tram drivers with stress complaints and physical problems. They flirt with a burn-out. 

PORTO-NOVO - Yovo Bonsoir breaks the clichés about Africa. The white volunteer travelling in the West African country of Benin is the guide. With the help of local colleagues, three young Flemish journalists investigate the true nature of "voluntourism", a popular holiday trend that combines tourism ...

CAPE TOWN - The world behind a glass of South-African wine. Emma Lesuis went back to the winery where she made the documentary "Vir 'n glasie wyn" (For a glass of wine) and saw that little had changed. That's why she went looking for solutions and discovered the world of Fairtrade. 

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 ...

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.