'Drift-back' is a controversial practice which is used by some coast guard services, particularly in the Aegean Sea, to deter asylum seekers and prevent them from reaching their intended destination. It involves intercepting boats carrying asylum seekers within EU territorial waters, then forcing them back towards the country they departed from. This is sometimes allegedly done by loading people onto inflatable rafts or other small vessels without engines or adequate provisions. These vessels are then left to drift, relying on wind and currents to carry them back to the departing country.
For the last two years Forensis and Forensic Architecture have been collecting, verifying, time-stamping and geo-locating thousands of images, videos, & GPS locations sent by asylum seekers to monitors like alarmphone and Aegean Boat Report in order to map evidence of drift-back. The result is "Drift-backs in the Aegean Sea", an interactive web-based map that archives and verifies over 2,000 cases of ‘drift-backs’.
Drift-backs in the Aegean Sea currently documents evidence of 2,010 drift-backs, resulting in the expulsion of 55,445 people, 24 deaths and 17 disappearances over three years (March 2020 - March 2023). The map provides ongoing documentation of one of Europe’s cruelest border management practices. If you click on one of the drift-back events plotted on the map you can view a brief report of the event with links to the source(s) for the report and (where available) photographic or video evidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment