Founder, Director @LHReports, focus on collaborative journalism, previously @TheEconomist @Independent @RefugeesDeeply Fellow @RefugeeStudies
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Articles by Daniel Howden
Flight of the Predator: Jet linked to Israeli spyware tycoon delivers surveillance tech from the EU to notorious Sudanese militia
AOJ71H 18 May 2022 10:26 Khartoum DOF/220518 C750 -LCLK -HSSK On a dusty May morning in Khartoum an executive jet taxied to a halt under the blistering sun. Two jeeps with tinted windows stood ready to meet it from one of the most notorious and feared militias in the world, the Rapid Support Forces.
Europol sta diventando un’agenzia di sorveglianza di massa
L’agenzia di polizia dell’Unione europea, Europol, sarà costretta a cancellare una parte significativa di un enorme archivio di dati personali che ha accumulato illegalmente negli ultimi anni. A ordinarlo è lo European Data Protection Supervisor (Edps), il garante europeo per la protezione della privacy. A finire sotto i riflettori del garante è quella che gli esperti descrivono come una «montagna di big data», contenente miliardi di informazioni.
Is there a single 12v DC pulse device?
I have been trying to find a device that when it receives a constant +12v current will send out a +12v pulse for 0.5 seconds. This is for a car project I am working on. Thanks, Daniel. It would be easy to fabricate with an IC semi conductor device I have been trying to find a device that when it receives a constant +12v current will send out a +12v pulse for 0.5 seconds. This is for a car project I am working on. Thanks, Daniel. Yes it is called a microcontroller in an 8-pin package.
The Misrepresentation of a Migrant Success Story
While its future is shadowed by security concerns, Nairobi’s Eastleigh powers on as one of the commercial engines of Kenya’s economy. We speak to Oxford University’s Neil Carrier about low-end globalization and the economic value of migrant hubs. There are many stories told about Nairobi’s Eastleigh. For the Kenyan Asian nostalgics, it was a quiet residential estate where you could hear birdsong.
The Refugee Archipelago: The Inside Story of What Went Wrong in Greece
Refugees Deeply investigates failures in the most expensive humanitarian response in history, which played out during the refugee crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean. Widad Madrati remembers the first snowfall at Oreokastro like most children would, as a thing of wonder. It threw a brilliant white cover over the squalor of a refugee camp pitched in the grounds of a disused warehouse in the hills above Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki.
Misery in Moria is Europe’s migration policy
Daniel Howden is a migration expert and managing director of the investigative journalism organization Lighthouse Reports. ATHENS — Five years ago, when the refugee camp at Moria was still just a bad idea, a local army officer was asked to assess the site. Surveying the hillside of olive groves, Stavros Miroyiannis warned the authorities they were going to “build a favela.” If they had to choose this site, he said, they should at least plan the camp as they would a village.
La agencia de control fronterizo de la UE alertó a la Comisión sobre los riesgos de colaborar con la Guardia Costera libia
El director ejecutivo de Frontex, la agencia europea de control fronterizo, trasladó en febrero de 2019 a la Comisión europea su preocupación por la colaboración de aviones europeos con la Guardia Costera Libia en la interceptación de migrantes, según una carta a la que ha tenido acceso eldiario.es en una investigación conjunta con The Guardian y Mediapart.
Aviones españoles guían a los guardacostas libios para interceptar y devolver pateras en el Mediterráneo
La Unión Europea coordina desde el aire a los guardacostas libios para que intercepten a los migrantes en el Mediterráneo y los devuelvan a Libia, a pesar de que la normativa internacional, los tribunales comunitarios y la propia Comisión Europea señalan que retornarlos a este país es ilegal puesto que no es seguro, está en guerra, y en ese Estado no se respetan los Derechos Humanos.
The Prospect editorial: 2020 vision
The Prospect editorial: 2020 vision Zoom out and take a longer view, and there are good reasons to muster a new confidence for the 2020s by Tom Clark / December 12, 2019 / Leave a comment The front cover of Prospect’s new issue. Photo: Prospect composite Perhaps it was because 2019 was quite so grinding that as the nights drew in, there was little excitement, or even acknowledgement, about the dawn of a new decade.
Europe wants to send migrants home-but what happens when they get there?
A young man looks back after being rescued from a dinghy near the Malaga coast. Photo: JESUS MERIDA/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES Osita Osemene’s voice commands your attention in the same way a subwoofer does. His sermon has a bass line that washes over you in waves of rhetorical questions.
2018: A Year of Reporting Deeply on Refugees and Migration
As we near the end of another eventful year for refugees and migration policy, our editors select 2018’s best stories and commentary on Refugees Deeply. In 2018, the world’s displaced population reached 68.5 million, including more than 25 million refugees – numbers that have soared since Refugees Deeply launched nearly three years ago.
The Vulnerability Contest
Traumatized Afghan child soldiers who were forced to fight in Syria struggle to find protection in Europe’s asylum lottery. MORIA CAMP, LESBOS, Greece – Mosa did not choose to come forward. Word had spread among the thousands of asylum seekers huddled inside Moria that social workers were looking for lone children among the general population.
Albania's relics of paranoid past
For the first-time visitor to Albania it can be hard to shake off the feeling of being watched. As the country's only dual-carriage way cuts a swathe through the dense countryside from the airport into Tirana, it slowly dawns on you that you are surrounded. Looking down from every hillside, sprouting out of every bank, are the cracked and rusting domes of the defence bunkers - a concrete legacy of the paranoid imagination of Albania's communist ruler for 40 years, Enver Hoxha.
A Conversation About 'Border Work' in West Africa
A conversation with professor Philippe M. Frowd about his new book, which details both the politics and everyday realities in places like Senegal. Over the past 15 years there has been a surge in European Union spending on borders outside Europe. The impact of this funding on West Africa has received little attention until recently. A new book by Philippe M. Frowd, an expert on the politics of borders, migration, and security intervention, seeks to correct this.
Migration: Niger at a crossroads
The Africa Report examines the EU’s efforts to tamp down migration to its shores by pouring hundreds of millions of euros into an African country with a poor governance record and high rates of poverty Abdourahmane Alfa’s claustrophobic office captures the changing times in Niger’s capital, Niamey. The poky little room is an indication of the importance his own government used to attach to the border and customs police.
How Borders Are Constructed in West Africa
Over the past 15 years there has been a surge in E.U. spending on borders outside Europe. The impact of this funding on West Africa has received little attention until recently. A new book by Philippe M. Frowd, an expert on the politics of borders, migration and security intervention, seeks to correct this.
Looking Past Outrage and Violence to See the Border
From the heart-rending cries of a baby to images of distraught children and parents, recent coverage of the “crisis” on the border between the United States and Mexico has been dramatic. For many people living and working on either side of the border, the outrage that was stoked was understandable but troubling. Brief bursts of intense, viral attention – such as that which exploded around the practice of family separation at the border – can distort as much as they illuminate the issues involved.
Niger: Europe’s Migration Laboratory
Mahamane Ousmane is an unrepentant people smuggler. He makes no effort to deny transporting migrants “countless times” across the Sahara into Libya. When he is released from prison in Niger’s desert city of Agadez, he intends to return to the same work. The 32-year-old is even more adamant he has done nothing wrong. “I don’t like criminals. I am no thief. I have killed no one,” he says. As Ousmane speaks, a small circle of fellow inmates in filthy football shirts and flip-flops murmur in agreement.
Niger: Europe’s Migration Laboratory
Mahamane Ousmane is an unrepentant people smuggler. He makes no effort to deny transporting migrants “countless times” across the Sahara into Libya. When he is released from prison in Niger’s desert city of Agadez, he intends to return to the same work. The 32-year-old is even more adamant he has done nothing wrong. “I don’t like criminals. I am no thief. I have killed no one,” he says. As Ousmane speaks, a small circle of fellow inmates in filthy football shirts and flip-flops murmur in agreement.
Niger: Europe’s Migration Laboratory
How the EU’s migration obsession turned world’s 2nd poorest country into a laboratory for short-term policies. Mahamane Ousmane is an unrepentant people smuggler. He makes no effort to deny transporting migrants “countless times” across the Sahara into Libya. When he is released from prison in Niger’s desert city of Agadez, he intends to return to the same work. The 32-year-old is even more adamant he has done nothing wrong. “I don’t like criminals. I am no thief. I have killed no one,” he says.
Why Journalists Covering the Refugee Crisis Face Moral Injury
The refugee crisis saw many journalists confronted with trauma and hypocrisy on their home turf. Professor Anthony Feinstein discusses his latest work on the effects on those involved and their wider relevance. By Daniel Howden In 2016, the renowned psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein was approached by Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute.
A Question of Identity: Telling Stories Without Showing Faces
Since 2011, Forced Migration Review has chosen to avoid showing close-up images or faces. In the latest from our series on Picturing Refugees, editors Marion Couldrey and Jenny Peebles tell Refugees Deeply why. While many individuals and organizations in the refugee arena are uncomfortable with dominant images, very few have responded with concrete action.
Expert Views: The E.U.-Turkey Deal After Two Years
The E.U.-Turkey statement of March 20, 2016, was a turning point in Europe’s crisis over refugees. Under the deal, Turkey would prevent boats leaving its shores for Greece, while Athens would return arriving migrants to Turkey. In exchange, the E.U. would increase funding and resettlement for refugees in Turkey, along with other political sweeteners.
How to Challenge Stereotypical Refugee Images: A Photographer’s Guide
Public perceptions of refugees are shaped by the narrow lens through which they are most often presented: drama and victimhood. Photographers, editors and the organizations that commission them all share a degree of responsibility for the “boats and camps” images that dominate visualizations of refuge. Some working photographers are broadening the narrow lens. Among them is Kalpesh Lathigra, who teaches photography and continues to take a variety of refugee-related assignments.
Deeply Talks: Picturing Refugees
Images of refugees and migration fill the portfolios of many of the world’s most respected photographers. But the predominant picture we have of the lives of the displaced remains that of “boats and camps.” Some photographers have pushed back against this narrow, if dramatic, representation, but it persists and helps to shape public perceptions of refugees. In our latest Deeply Talk we looked at these constraints from the perspective of those shooting, editing and commissioning photographs.
Analysis: How the Private Sector Can Help Tackle the Refugee Crisis
It has become popular to suggest the private sector should play a bigger role in addressing the global refugee crisis. When refugee experts descended on New York for the U.N. General Assembly and slew of special refugee side events last month, private sector engagement was one of the buzz topics. Almost all the conversations had one thing in common: They were talking about entirely different actions while at the same time casting them as private sector engagement on migration and refugees.
Deeply Talks: Inside a Critical Experiment on Refugee Jobs
Nearly two years ago, one of the world’s most important economic experiments for refugees began in Jordan. Following a major donor conference in early 2016, Jordan was to receive $1.7 billion in grants and concessional loans, as well as exemption from E.U. trade barriers, in exchange for opening up its labor market to over 1 million Syrian refugees in the country. A later deal with vaguer terms tested some of the same ideas in Lebanon.
Under-reported: Refugees - UnHerd
I began working with asylum seekers and refugees at the beginning of 2012 when issues surrounding the refugee crisis were on the front pages of tabloids and broadsheets, left- and right-wing outlets alike. Some of the articles were geared towards stigmatisation, vilification and scapegoating refugees, while others were full of sympathy and pity, illustrated by heartrending images of desperate people in flimsy dinghies in the Mediterranean sea.
Must-Read Stories on Refugees From 2017
We asked refugee and migration experts to select their favorite stories on migration and refugees from the past year and explain why they are must-read material. Here is a selection of their choices, as well as some sent in by members of the Refugees Deeply community and our editors’ own favorites.
¿Puede Jordania dar empleo a un millón de refugiados sirios?
Todos los días a las seis de la mañana, Fátima espera en la puerta del campo de refugiados más grande de Jordania el autobús que le lleva a ella y a otras 18 refugiadas sirias a trabajar en una fábrica situada a una hora de distancia. Es el primer trabajo que ha tenido esta mujer de 37 años procedente de Damasco y madre de cinco hijos.
Greece Faces a Rerun of Its Refugee Winter of Discontent
The shelter offered to Amira since she got to Europe amounts to a plastic sheet she has slept under for the past ten days. The Syrian mother of three was taken to Vathy, a camp on the Greek island of Samos where nearly 3,000 people are spilling out of a facility built for 700. She struggles to explain to her children, who lost their father in the war, why they must sleep rough being bitten by insects.
Expert Views: Should Rescue NGOs Sign Mediterranean Code of Conduct?
Italy recently drafted a code of conduct for nongovernmental organizations conducting search-and-rescue (SAR) operations for boats carrying refugees and migrants along the Central Mediterranean passage from Libya to Italy. To date, four of the eight humanitarian groups operating rescue ships in the Mediterranean have signed the code, while the remainder have not.
Politics Trumps Health to Confine Asylum Seekers to Greek Islands
The bullet wound on Mohamed’s back is only the most visible sign of the young man’s trauma. The abuse he suffered at the hands of the security services in Syria before the war left other, hidden scars. Based on his account of this ordeal, he was accepted into a support group for torture survivors in Athens. His problem, as for many asylum seekers on the Greek islands, is that he cannot travel to the capital, or anywhere else on the mainland.
Politics Trumps Health to Confine Asylum Seekers to Greek Islands
The bullet wound on Mohamed’s back is only the most visible sign of the young man’s trauma. The abuse he suffered at the hands of the security services in Syria before the war left other, hidden scars. Based on his account of this ordeal, he was accepted into a support group for torture survivors in Athens. His problem, as for many asylum seekers on the Greek islands, is that he cannot travel to the capital, or anywhere else on the mainland.
Understanding What Syrian Refugees Want
While many parties to peace talks over Syria pay lip service to what the Syrian people want, most feel free to interpret their will. This is what makes the work of Kristin Fabbe and her colleagues Chad Hazlett and Tolga Sinmazdemir so important.
E.U. Deal With Turkey Legitimizes Far Right in Europe: Christopoulos
One year on from its signing, the agreement between the European Union and Turkey has had far-reaching implications. The deal under which Ankara agreed to crack down on refugee and migrant flows in return for political concessions and European aid money is being used as a basis for E.U. external relations.
The Refugee Archipelago: The Inside Story of What Went Wrong in Greece
Refugees Deeply investigates failures in the most expensive humanitarian response in history, which played out during the refugee crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean. Widad Madrati remembers the first snowfall at Oreokastro like most children would, as a thing of wonder. It threw a brilliant white cover over the squalor of a refugee camp pitched in the grounds of a disused warehouse in the hills above Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki.
Must-Read Stories on Refugees From 2016
We collected the best stories on refugees from 2016, as selected by refugee and migration experts and the editors of Refugees Deeply. We asked refugee experts to pick their favorite stories on migration and refugees from the past year and explain why they are must-read material. Here is a selection of their choices, as well as some of our editors’ own favorites.
Populist regimes in Hungary, Czech Republic pump up hatred for refugees
BUDAPEST, Hungary, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Agnes Urbanics is happy to talk to strangers as long as they speak quietly. Inside the kindergarten where she works in Letkes, a hamlet near Hungary's northern border with Slovakia, the children are sleeping. Two dozen Hungarian toddlers are having their afternoon nap in one of the classrooms, while Agnes and her fellow teachers tidy up.
The Manufacture of Hatred: Scapegoating Refugees in Central Europe
PRAGUE and BUDAPEST – Agnes Urbanics is happy to talk to strangers as long as they speak quietly. Inside the kindergarten where she works in Letkes, a hamlet near Hungary’s northern border with Slovakia, the children are sleeping. Two dozen Hungarian toddlers are having their afternoon nap in one of the classrooms, while Agnes and her fellow teachers tidy up.
Artificial Intelligence and the Refugee Crisis
There is a frequent presence in the thousands of images of refugees arriving on the shores of Europe: phones. They have been a lifeline on hazardous sea crossings and a first resort when relaying news to faraway relatives. Ubiquitous smartphones have also been a reminder that this wave of migration is happening in a technological age.
Obama's legacy 'uneven' on refugee crisis
The Obama Administration's legacy on the global refugee crisis remains in the balance as it enters its final months in office. While the president's Leaders' Summit on Refugees in New York on Sept. 20 delivered a raft of international pledges from new funding to refugee resettlement, top officials concede that there is no follow-up mechanism in place.
The Obama Legacy on Refugees
The Obama administration’s legacy on the global refugee crisis remains in the balance as it enters its final months in office. While the president’s Leaders’ Summit on Refugees in New York on September 20 delivered a raft of international pledges from new funding to refugee resettlement, top officials concede that there is no follow-up mechanism in place.
Mismatch Between Rhetoric and Reality at Refugee Summits
The two most significant international refugee summits since the 1950s have come and gone while doing little to close the gap between the rhetoric and reality of forced migration, experts say. Hopes that the gatherings would deliver some form of global consensus on sharing responsibility for refugees and migrants had largely evaporated even before world leaders converged on the U.N. headquarters in a rainy New York on September 19.
Teachers Have Moral Duty to Help Refugee Children
One of the most high profile head teachers in Britain, Dr. Rory Fox, came to prominence as a disciplinarian restoring order to failing schools. His no-nonsense approach to turning around two academy schools earned him the moniker of the “toughest head in England.” Even these experiences, including protests from teachers, parents and pupils, are mild in comparison with his attempts to teach refugee and migrant children in a makeshift tented classroom near Calais.
Refugees caught up in child prostitution in Athens
ATHENS -- There are new arrivals in the once-grand park of Pedion tou Areos in central Athens. Among the drug dealers and dog walkers, joggers and junkies, are a shifting cast of refugee children. Lured into the vastness of its ruined tree-lined avenues and vandalized statues by the promise of money and a way out of Greece, they have found themselves prey to a burgeoning sex trade.
Refugees Caught Up in Child Prostitution in Athens
The first of a two-part investigation into prostitution among child refugees in Athens. With 57,000 refugees stranded in Greece, we look at what some of the most vulnerable among them are doing to survive. There are new arrivals in the once grand park of Pedion tou Areos in central Athens. Among the drug dealers and dog walkers, joggers and junkies, are a shifting cast of refugee children.
Understanding the gig economy
The future of work is clouded by two contrasting visions. One is a daydream with a laptop and a sea view, where highly-skilled work is divorced from any particular location. The other is a nightmare of drudgery, where hours are spent plodding the corridors of a giant warehouse pushing a trolley with a robotic earpiece telling us to walk further and faster.
Understanding the gig economy
The future of work is clouded by two contrasting visions. One is a daydream with a laptop and a sea view, where highly-skilled work is divorced from any particular location. The other is a nightmare of drudgery, where hours are spent plodding the corridors of a giant warehouse pushing a trolley with a robotic earpiece telling us to walk further and faster.
Die Hard: The Troubled History of the Resume
It was the early 1980s, there was a former matinee idol in the White House and the fax machine had yet to disturb the peace of office life but the resume was already being written off. The cold war was far from over, the only digital thing in most people’s lives was a calculator and yet some experts in the world of work considered the demise of the resume imminent. It was hopelessly outdated, the career Cassandras declared, and poorly suited to the needs of modern employers.
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