Supported projects

BRUSSELS - Worldwide, more than 65 million people are on the run for war, terror, poverty or climatic changes. A sad record. Although only a small percentage of these refugees go to Europe, the political discourse on migration and refugees is one of an evil that should be prevented by all means.

MYTILINI - In October 2017 cartoonists Judith Vanistendael, Aimée de Jongh and Mei-Li Nieuwland visited the refugee camps of Moria and Kara Tepe on Lesvos.

BAMAKO - In Mali, the expression “aller en aventure” (setting off on an adventure) is widely known: young men are encouraged to spread their wings and leave the country to become a "real" man.

SAN SALVADOR - Strikingly absent in the American political debate: the issue of the Central American refugee crisis. Journalist Arthur Debruyne traveled along the migration route between Mexico and the United States.

KAKUMA - In a remote corner of the sparsely populated northwest of Kenya, the Kakuma Refugee Camp was founded in 1991. The persistent instability in the region caused a society with increasingly urban characteristics to arise.

KIEV - The Belgian Koen Carlier has a mission: he wants to bring all Jews in the world to Israel. With the support of Christians for Israel, he travels through Ukraine to help Jews return to Israel. Because only then will the Messiah come, says Koen ...

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 Lampedusa.

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.

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 freedoms, and the xenophobic political climate also play a role.

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?

SOFIA - The dramas in the Mediterranean Sea at the beginning of April 2015 put migration back high on the European agenda. For a moment anyway, because it is not the first time that refugees have paid with their lives for the journey to a better life.

KABUL / BAGDAD - Tine Danckaers travelled to the Middle East and spoke in Afghanistan and Kurdish Iraq with people who applied for asylum in Belgium but returned to their country of origin 'voluntarily' or after a forced deportation. A dossier on return as part of the European migration policy, the flexible interpretation of security, perspectives or lack thereof, homesickness and paralysis.

BRUSSELS - Something's brewing in Brussels. Photographer Kurt Deruyter has been working for years on a project in the Brussels neighbourhoods of Molenbeek and Cureghem. Together with De Standaard-journaliste Sarah Vankersschaever, he has spent the past few months looking for a new perspective on these neighbourhoods, where chaos, entrepreneurship and cosmopolitanism dominate the streetscape.

OKEIGBO - Yemi Oduwale, a Flemish boy born in '86, has a Belgian mother and a Nigerian father. His grandfather is ill and wants Yemi to succeed him as 'chief' in Nigeria. But Yemi was born and raised in Europe and doesn't know anything about the culture of the Yoruba, one of the largest tribes in West Africa. What's more, it's been more than 15 years since he last visited Nigeria.

BACAU - Georgiana Halmac, the eldest daughter in her family, turns fifteen this winter. She lives with her six siblings in a social housing flat on the outskirts of Bacau, Romania. Her mother Liliana, an economic migrant in Turin, will not return until the summer.

BUCHAREST - When Romania became a member of the European Union in 2007, a transitional measure was voted in Belgium whereby Romanians needed a work permit in order to be able to work. A direct consequence of this was that many Romanians ended up in the informal circuit or were employed under the wrong statute.

DAKAR - In 2012, 19-year-old Mamadou was one of the 5742 men, women and children expelled from Belgium. They ended up in the oblivion of public opinion. No news, good news. And if we may believe the responsible Secretary of State for migration Maggie De Block, the Belgian return policy is a huge success.

GHENT - In 2014 it will be exactly fifty years ago that the first Turkish labour migrants arrived in Ghent to work in the defunct textile factories. Today, more than 20,000 inhabitants of Ghent (about one in twelve) have their roots in Turkey. How Ghent became a small 'Turkey on the Leie' in half a century is the central question in this book about the people behind those numbers.

RABAT - Random arrests, assault, raids, deportation to Algeria. The fate of many Sub-Saharan illegal and legal refugees in Morocco. Maithé Franco and Luca Putteman talked to victims and investigated what role Europe plays in this story.

BRUSSELS - Stories in the media on Scott Manyo or the dutch boy Mauro brought the issue of unaccompanied minors to the attention of the general public. But the boys and girls that end up here all alone, are rarely more than figures in one or the other report.

BAGHDAD - Zelfa Madhloum went to Iraq to find Iraqis returning to their country after having emigrated. What is more, it was her first visit to her country of origin. Against everyone's advice, she decided to follow her destiny in Iraq. She immerses herself in the new, shocking world, gets to know other people her age and meets her family for the first time.

SANTO TOMÁS DE CASTILLA - This is the story of the first ever Belgian colony, namely the one in Guatemala (1843-1856). Both in Belgium and in Guatemala this little piece of history seems to have been collectively forgotten. However, a few interesting encounters teach us that that migration left a lot of tracks.

GUANGZHOU - Stringent European migration legislation has shifted traditional African migration circuits towards China. The process of obtaining a European visa is long and tiresome. It can take up to two years without any guarantee of actually acquiring the visa, a Chinese visa takes a day. This led to the formation of African communities in China, such as the Congolese community in the Xiaobei district in the city of Guangzhou.

RABAT - It used to be no more than the curse of acrimonious racists. Today, however, it is an optimistic dream. Increasingly more well-educated Moroccans born in Belgium, children or grandchildren from former migrant workers, decide to build a future in the country that their parents fled from so many years earlier.

TRENTON – America is electing a new president. But what do new Americans, such as people from Antwerp in Belgium who started a new life in the States years ago, think about that? For ten weeks, journalist Niels Daniel and cameraman Nico Beckers travelled through four American states to find out: New Jersey, Colorado, Georgia and New York.

BRUSSELS - In spite of the efforts made by NGOs and the distribution of EU funds, Europe’s main minority is no better off than it was 10 years ago. Anno 2012 the significant proportion of Europe’s 12 million Roma live in deplorable conditions. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. Dutch journalist Hellen Kooijman reconstructed more than ten years of failed European policy. A lack of appropriate supervision in Brussels, the corruption of local leaders and the indifference of national governments are at the root of the problem.

BRUSSELS -There are few issues that have been as socially sensitive as immigration in recent years. At the same time, the policy on migration goes in all directions. While European countries mainly want to make access more difficult for newcomers and expel more people, the European Commission is actively attracting immigrants with the new Blue Card system, a work permit for non-Europeans valid throughout the Union.

BRUSSELS - Eight underage asylum seekers were followed by Catherine Vuylsteke for one year. The Nadaar collective and three guest photographers each portrayed one of the youngsters.

BRUSSELS - In Silent Stories Hanne Phlypo and Catherine Vuysteke follow two men and two women from Algeria, Senegal, Iraq and Guinea whose sexual orientation forced them to leave their country - wether they were bisexual, homosexual, lesbian or transsexual.

TRIPOLI - Sub Saharan refugees and migrants get stranded in Libya, one of the most important transit countries, on their way to Europe. The European Union tries to keep migrants from reaching Europe by making expensive deals with the Libyan Government.