Iliana Papangeli

19 / 04 / 2023

Hawala: The bankers of irregular migration

The absence of legal migratory routes towards Europe has raised the importance of entrusted intermediaries that operate through the ‘hawala’ system and serve both as a bank for smugglers and as an insurer for migrants.

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13 / 04 / 2023

Tal Dilian: How Mr Predator attempted to save his image

His name is linked to wiretapping scandals in Cyprus & Greece – the former Israeli intelligence officer is one of Europe’s most controversial figures. Solomon’s OSINT investigation reveals how a months-long campaign attempted to create a positive online narrative about Tal Dilian and his business activities.

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06 / 03 / 2023

The Fire at Moria: A disaster destined to happen

The re-examination of information and revealing data call into question the credibility of the evidence that led to six young asylum seekers being convicted of setting fire to Europe's most notorious refugee camp.

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14 / 02 / 2023

Lack of transparency in the Greek Ministry of Migration’s €1.7 million in secret funding

When the Migration Minister created a classified fund he claimed full transparency, so that spending "would not need to be marked ‘confidential’ in the end". Three years later there has been no transparency at all.

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06 / 12 / 2022

They once experienced war in their home country. Bosnians are now helping those who get stuck along the Balkan route.

Azra has made her home a hub for those in need, and Asim has devoted himself to supporting migrant people. In a country still dealing with its own scars, many Bosnian people are showing solidarity to those escaping today’s wars and hardship.

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06 / 12 / 2022

“Somewhere, a mother is crying for them”

The memories of the Bosnian war from the ‘90s are still vivid and many people in Bosnia and Herzegovina remember what it means to flee your home and leave it all behind. Today, war traumas influence Bosnians’ compassion for the migrants who attempt to reach Europe.

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18 / 11 / 2022

Exclusive: UN Letter Documents Greek Pushback of Turkish Asylum Seekers

In March, eight Turks reached Greece by boat, fearing persecution in their homeland. The UN urged Greece to provide protection, but instead the men were pushed back to sea and into the arms of the Turkish police.

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31 / 08 / 2022

Asylum Surveillance Systems Launched in Greece without Data Safeguards

With money from the EU’s pandemic-recovery fund, systems to monitor the movements of asylum seekers in Greece were designed and launched without basic data safeguards required under EU law.

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15 / 07 / 2022

Dark Waters of the Aegean: 1,018 illegal pushbacks carried out by the Greek state

It has become a common practice for Greek authorities to abandon asylum seekers at sea, which has resulted in injuries and drownings. An interactive map reveals the recurring crime committed across the Aegean Sea. The Greek government must explain how abducting people in need and abandoning them in life rafts is linked to international law and European values.

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10 / 03 / 2022

Masafarhána: Inside the invisible refugee houses in Athens

In Athens, refugees pay to live in small apartments which accommodate up to 22 people. They often fall victim to exploitation by their compatriots. But sometimes the masafarhánas offer them the forgotten feeling of home.

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28 / 01 / 2022

Unaccompanied minors: The fear of adulthood

Like most teenagers in Europe, they should be waiting for their 18th birthday with excitement and impatience. But for the thousands of asylum seekers who are unaccompanied minors, the day they turn 18 – when they go from being minors in need of protection to being regarded as "men" and even "foreigners" – is a day accompanied by anxiety about what tomorrow might bring and by the fear of deportation.

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19 / 10 / 2021

Congolese minor suing Frontex: “I thought that the law is upheld in Europe”

A.N., a young woman from Burundi, was recently granted asylum in Greece. However, her struggle continues. She is suing Frontex, for the first time in the history of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, for complicity in two pushback incidents that she claims preceded her asylum. The case is co-signed by an unaccompanied minor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo – who claims that he has been pushed backed to Turkey three times, where he currently remains.

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06 / 10 / 2021

How a convicted neo-Nazi attempts to regain his seat in Greek Parliament − from jail

A year after the leaders of neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, were convicted of operating a criminal organization, their influence seems to have waned. However, through his own YouTube channel, which he uses to speak unopposed, Ilias Kasidiaris is aiming to become the main spokesperson of the Far Right in Greece.

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30 / 09 / 2021

The perilous border crossing “game” in Bosnia

Migrant people stranded at the Bosnian border wait for the right moment to try their hand at the “game”. Normally they must try multiple times due to violent pushbacks by border forces.

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29 / 06 / 2021

The cost of agricultural produce in Portugal’s Alentejo region

Diana Takacsova’s photography stresses the role of the essential workers who are frequently trapped outside the formal system, juxtaposing it with the intensified land use and the inadequate living and labour conditions present in the Alentejo region.

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04 / 06 / 2021

Greek strawberries “made in Bangladesh”

Up to 10,000 migrant agricultural workers live in makeshift camps in the strawberry fields of Ilia, which produce the "red gold" that generates tens of millions of euros in exports. While the Greek state remains indifferent, the number of workers is expected to increase, as production is projected to skyrocket by 2025, covering approximately 6,200 acres.

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04 / 06 / 2021

A behind-the-scenes look at Greece’s “red gold” harvest

A photo essay by Thodoris Nikolaou

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27 / 04 / 2021

His drawing traveled to Europe. But 12-year-old Jamal simply wants to “get out of this jail”.

"I don’t want anything from you. Nor am I happy that my drawing has traveled to another place, while I'm stuck in a prison", says little Jamal from a detention center on Kos island.

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25 / 04 / 2021

Born on January 1st

An unpublished piece from earlier this year that attempts to explain a common and noticeable phenomenon that we often encounter in our coverage of refugees.

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02 / 03 / 2021

COVID-19 impacts on poverty

The COVID-19 pandemic is making an already highly unequal world even more so.

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17 / 02 / 2021

Apostolos Kapsalis: “We are travelling in uncharted and stormy seas”

We sat down for a long discussion with the researcher of the Institute of Labor for the phenomenon "Manolada", the realities of migrant workers in Greece, and the challenges that the pandemic brought -and will bring- not only to the agricultural production, but the rights of the ones ensuring it.

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09 / 02 / 2021

Paul Schlag: “The improvement of the labor market integration can be a very long process”

We spoke with the German researcher Paul Ferdinand Slag on the occasion of the “An Abundance of Unleashed Potential” report on the access of refugees to the labor market.

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28 / 01 / 2021

“I have to lead people to a ‘safe place'”

Solomon travels to Karditsa for migrant workers and Covid-19 project.

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22 / 01 / 2021

Millions in funding at stake for refugee housing

2020 was the year the government vowed to “put NGOs in order” and millions were controversially allocated to tackle the issue. Funding was even granted to NGOs that did not meet the criteria set by the government.

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14 / 01 / 2021

Refugee minor in Patras: “See you in another country”

In about five hours from the time of writing these lines, and after already five days of failed attempts, M., a 17-year-old boy from Afghanistan, one of the dozens of refugees and migrants who have camped at the factory, will try to hide on one of the vehicles in the port, hoping that this time he’ll make it.

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30 / 12 / 2020

Our last flight of 2020 (or going back when everyone is gone)

How important is it in journalism to revisit the same places as well as the stories that might have been already told?

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18 / 12 / 2020

Inside a gardener’s quarantine

For a year and a half, Hamid Nasseri moved daily from the center of Athens to the northern suburbs and took care of the gardens at houses there. Until the coronavirus appeared, the country entered a second lock down, and he was forced to lose his job and income again.

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09 / 12 / 2020

New Publication: Impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers

It was March 2020 when Greece imposed the first lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. The country is currently in its second lockdown, which for the moment has been extended until January 7, 2021.

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03 / 12 / 2020

Mahmood in waiting

In 2016 Mahmood left Jalalabad, his hometown in Afghanistan, and embarked on a dangerous journey to Europe. After six months he made it to Greece. We meet him in a flat in the suburbs of Athens, which he shares with up to twelve other compatriots; struggling with the Greek asylum services; making a living on the streets; and strolling through the center of Athens. This is his story.

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01 / 11 / 2020

The logbook of Moria

A logbook was found in the ashes of Europe’s most notorious refugee camp. Written by the workers that were there to protect the unaccompanied minors, but often felt incapable of doing so, its pages reveal the horrific reality that they endured. The logbook of Moria’s safe zone is an indisputable document of Europe’s failure to protect the most vulnerable group of asylum seekers that sought safety within its borders.

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26 / 10 / 2020

“Mom, what are Albanians?”

Marios and Mirela came to Greece 24 years ago, and their children were born here. They cultivate garlic − a local product which has helped the region of Platykampos, Larissa, gain international attention. But they are still waiting for Greek citizenship.

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12 / 10 / 2020

Bringing a refugee story to its true protagonists

When BFJE fellow Stavros Malichudis published his investigation into young unaccompanied male asylum seekers and refugees in Greece, he took it to the kind of people featured in the story to test their reaction.

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14 / 09 / 2020

Giorgos Tsiakalos: “In Europe, a racist policy is being implemented”

The Emeritus Professor of Pedagogy Giorgos Tsiakalos speaks to Solomon and analyzes in depth the racist policies of the European Union towards mobile populations.

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07 / 07 / 2020

The grey areas on the list of the greek media outlets’ payments for COVID-19 awareness campaign

Athens Voice received more money than LIFO. The Athenian newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton only got as much as a local paper. There were 239 websites that received money although they were unregistered news outlets. The publication of the list revealed inconsistencies in the payments the media received for the coronavirus public awareness campaign "We Stay Home".

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17 / 06 / 2020

“I didn’t know I had to tell my story somewhere”

Keita is from the Ivory Coast and has been living in Athens since 2010. As a minor, he decided to leave his family and pursue his dream to play football. But things didn't quite work out as he expected.

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22 / 05 / 2020

“We are kind of speechless today” – Lime quits Athens, downsizes Thessaloniki’s operation

After pausing its operations in Greece amid COVID-19, Lime announced to employees it is shutting down its services in Athens.

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07 / 05 / 2020

For asylum seekers who are unaccompanied minors, COVID-19 creates new challenges

He made the journey from Afghanistan to Greece. He lived inside the biggest refugee camp in Europe, was transferred to different places across the country, and dreamed of many European destinations - and then a world pandemic erupted.

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03 / 04 / 2020

Thousands of agricultural workers in Manolada are “staying home” – in shacks

The strawberry season has already begun, and at least 7,000 harvesters from Bangladesh are currently in Manolada. While agricultural production has decreased due to COVID-19, difficult living and working conditions raise further concerns.

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21 / 03 / 2020

“In Turkey there were 40 of us in a small, covered truck”

We met Raz in the afternoon of Sunday, January 21, 2020 at the We Need Books in Kipseli, Athens. He had gone to arrange Greek lessons, which he intended to start. "I am forced to. For my papers, for the language test. So as to bring my wife here," he told me in fluent Greek.

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12 / 03 / 2020

The tandoor of Moria

Afghan wood-fired ovens are an example of people's attempt to resist a regime of detention which imposes misery as normality.

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06 / 03 / 2020

“Take this tent, they told us, and find somewhere to put it”

We met Ghulam and Ghulam Ali on February 11, 2020, at the canteen across the main gate of the Moria Reception and Identification Center on the island of Lesvos.

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Iliana Papangeli

Managing Director

Iliana is a journalist and editor. She concentrates on migration, the far-right, and food systems. She has been nominated for the European Press Prize '21 and won the IJ4EU Impact Award '22. Her work has been published in media like The New Humanitarian, Balkan Insight, Der Tagesspiegel, and οpenDemocracy. She has studied Psychology and Social Anthropology.

Stavros Malichudis

Director

Stavros is a reporter and editor. He has worked for the Agence France-Presse and inside story, and has participated in cross-border investigations with Lighthouse Reports and Investigate Europe. He’s member of Reporters United. His reports have been published in European media. He was shortlisted for the European Press Prize ‘21 and won the IJ4EU Impact Award ‘22. In 2019 he was selected as a fellow for BIRN's Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence (BFJE). He has been trained in data journalism at Columbia University in New York on a fellowship.

Corina Petridi

Journalist & data editor

Corina is a journalist and data editor at Solomon. She has worked with VICE Greece, Reporters United, and Balkan investigative network BIRN. She has studied Political Science. In 2019, she won a scholarship to Columbia Journalism School's Lede Program on coding, data analysis, and visual storytelling. She has reported on migration, real estate, data privacy and gender.

Aristea Protonotariou

Administrator

Aristea was born in 1994 and grew up on Kythira island, Greece. Her studies are in Journalism and Archives, Librarianship & Information Science. She was trained in Multimedia Journalism as an SNF scholar in Columbia University, NY. She holds an MA in Risk Communication and Crisis Journalism. Aristea is the founder of the “Migratory Birds”, the first newspaper in Greece made by and for refugee, migrant and Greek youth.

Apostolis Fotiadis

Researcher/journalist

Apostolis covers EU policy issues including developments in population movement, security and defence, privacy and big data policies. In the past, he has co-operated with many international media outlets and organisations. He has authored numerous reports, published two books on EU migration and border control policies and has been a member of numerous cross-border investigations. He currently co-operates with investigative outlet Solomon and also works as a freelance researcher.

Danai Maragoudaki

Journalist

Danai started working as a journalist in 2015. She has worked for several Greek media like inside story, VICE, and capital.gr. She is also a member of the investigative team The Manifold and the production team Paola Team Documentaries. Her reporting focuses on transparency and economics, technology, gender and LGBTQ+ rights. She has studied political science and translation.

Gigi Papoulias

English editor

Gigi was raised in the US, a daughter of Greek immigrants. She graduated from Boston College with a concentration in Education and Modern Greek Studies. As a grant recipient at the University of Athens, she completed further coursework in Greek Studies. In her professional background, Gigi has provided writing, editing, translation and content development services to media and academic sectors, publishing companies and multinational corporations. She’s also taught at a multicultural kindergarten, worked in a restaurant kitchen, interpreted for immigration services at a US airport, sold t-shirts in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, and led meditation & mindfulness classes at a women’s center.

Galatia Iatraki

Illustrator

Galatia creates illustrations for Solomon's stories. She studied and worked in Thessaloniki, the Netherlands and Crete in the field of information technology and multimedia. She has attended photography and archival practices seminars. Through photography and collage, she explores topics about contemporary social issues. She is currently based in Athens.

Nasruddin Nizami

Board member

Nasruddin is a board member and migration expert. He was born in Afghanistan and raised in Pakistan. He has worked as an interpreter, cultural mediator and case worker with IOM. He is a current board member of the Greek Council for Refugees. He has a degree in English Studies at Deree, the American College of Greece.