Airbone Complicity

In collaboration with Border Forensics and Human Rights Watch, Airborne Complicity investigates the use of aerial surveillance by the EU’s border agency (Frontex) in the central Mediterranean. The project findings demonstrate Frontex’s aerial surveillance is key in enabling the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept migrant boats and return their passengers to Libya, knowing full well that they will face systematic and widespread abuse when forcibly returned there.

Spatial and cartographic investigations for Airborne Complicity analysed flight tracking data for Frontex aircraft; several planes and a drone operated by private companies, which transmit video feeds and other information to a situation centre at Frontex headquarters, Warsaw. Through a detailed analysis of flight tracking data from the fleet’s Heron Drone, the research proved correlations between the drone’s movements and known interceptions of migrant boats by the Libyan coast guard. Maps and visual aides developed for the project were included in Human Rights Watch’s published report, and widely circulated in international media. 

Images: Platform presenting the investigation’s findings into the Frontex Drone’s suspected role in human rights violations across the Central Mediterranean.

Team

Charles Heller - Research Director
Lorenzo Pezzani - Research Director
Jack Isles - Cartography
Svitlana Lavrenchuk - Cartography
Rossana Padeletti - Cartography
Giovanna Reder - Research
Luca Obertüfer - Pattern Recognition
Stanislas Michel - Statistical Analysis
Judith Sunderland - Jouranlism
Giulia Tranchina - Research
Julia Link - Jouranlism
Grace Choi - Cordination
John Emerson - Programming