Benjamin Bathke

Saeid Fazloula fled political persecution in his home country Iran in 2015 and sought refuge in Germany. Ever since the canoeist has been training hard to make a dream come true: compete at the Olympic Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

[Report starts at 46'40"] Covid-19 has forced thousands of musicians and artists to cancel performances around the world. But in Estonia, the organizers of Tallinn Music Week decided not to bow to the seemingly inevitable. It was one of the first major music festivals to take place in Europe since the easing of anti-coronavirus measures and travel restrictions.

Personal essay about becoming a father in times of corona.

2,800+ words profile of Gambian asylum seeker Yahya Sonko. The kindergarten teacher apprentice has become a linchpin for information who helps thousands of fellow Gambian migrants in Europe. However, it remains unclear whether he can stay in Germany.

A new breed of Egyptian startups are banking on sustainability and economic inclusion to help travelers and tour guides alike. I visited Cairo to find out more.

Fireside chat with Plan A's Lubomila Jordanova at TechChill 2020 in Riga about her personal motivation to help companies calculate, monitor & reduce their carbon footprint, hair-raising examples of greenwashing, why the cleantech sector lacks funding and whether there will be any humans left on Planet Earth in 300 years.

For refugee children who have missed school, participating in classes can be challenging, especially in a foreign language. A Berlin-based initiative tries to fill their knowledge gaps with free tutoring in Arabic on the weekends. InfoMigrants visited a class in Berlin to find out how the project is helping them get back on track.

“You can’t finish a news feed, but you can finish Zetland, and that is just very nice, you know: ‘OK, that was the lesson for today, now I’m off out in the sun, talking to a friend.'”

Migration caused by natural disasters and violent conflict is on the rise: In the first half of 2019 alone, more than 10 million new people lost their homes due to extreme weather and political instability. Humanitarians and activists are warning of a "climate apartheid" and an "unprecedented" threat to human rights.

Q&A with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid about the reasons for the rise of far-right EKRE party, how to counter anti-Europe sentiments, and Estonia’s role as a digital peacekeeper.

Deep Technology startups — those relying heavily on tech breakthroughs and tangible IP — are on the rise globally. One of them, medtech venture RxAll, has made a handheld scanner that can detect fake drugs in 20 seconds.

Despite its record of abuses, Libya’s EU-funded and -trained coast guard is the bloc’s preferred partner to prevent migrants from reaching European soil. Having intercepted some 20,000 people in 2017 alone, the coast guard in the Mediterranean is efficient; it is not as good, however, at abiding by the law. Article for InfoMigrants looking at the funding, training and questionable monitoring of the loosely organized force whose members are often former militia.

Panel moderation at TDS with Joanna Bryson (University of Bath), Peggy Lynn Hicks (United Nations Human Rights Office), Eileen M. Lach (IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous & Intelligent Systems), Nanjira Sambuli (World Wide Web Foundation), John Newham (government of Ireland), Morten Kruse Søland (government of Denmark) and Bertrand Pailhès (government of France).

Video interview with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi for InfoMigrants about tackling the root causes of migration and refugee flows, the current rhetoric around people on the move, and Europe's political response.

Radio piece for German public radio (Deutschlandfunk) about the dangers of doxing, the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifying information (especially personally identifying information) about individuals or organizations, and how journalists can better protect their data online.