Research collaboration sheds light on global refugee crisis

In a hitherto unique agency cooperation, a wide variety of aspects of the refugee crisis are to be covered journalistically. In-depth attempts were made to shed light on the billion-dollar business of smugglers and to document the social and economic consequences of human smuggling. In addition to a global overview of the topic, local research activities focused on the hotspots of Southeast Asia, Central America, the Southern Sahara and the war zones in the Middle East as well as the routes to Europe. For this purpose, a wide variety of data sources were evaluated and interviews were conducted with experts, politicians and investigators. In addition, agency journalists conducted on-site research at the relevant locations. They gained new and detailed insights thanks to personal reports from border officials, migrants and whistleblowers from the smuggling scene. In supplementary interviews with politicians and human rights experts, strategies for dealing with the smuggling problem are also discussed.

Thanks to the transnational research network, the different approaches of various countries can be compared and global solution strategies outlined. The result is a comprehensive information package in which the topic is presented in numerous texts, photos, interactive graphics and videos. In addition to its own texts, SDA has translated a selection of articles into German and French and is making this content available to its customers in its own services. Keystone will publish a number of images to go with it. In addition, the entire multimedia news dossier will be published in English on the website Mindsglobalspotlight.com published.

The initiative was launched on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Minds. The dossier on trafficking is the network's first such research collaboration, and initiatives on other topics are planned. "The Minds group is an exceptionally strong media network. The member agencies occupy a central position in their respective media markets. And all these agencies are constantly working to deliver attractive news formats to their clients," explains Wolfgang Nedomansky, Managing Director Minds International. "In an increasingly interconnected world, we need innovative news research cooperations like MINDS Global Spotlight in order to be able to journalistically process global topics from a global perspective and offer them to our customers," adds Bernard Maissen, Editor-in-Chief of SDA.

The following MINDS news agencies are currently active members of Minds Global Spotlight:

- AAP / Australia - AFP / France

- ANSA / Italy - APA / Austria

- CTK / Czech Republic

- dpa / Germany

- EFE / Spain

- LUSA / Portugal

- SDA / Switzerland

- STT / Finland