PLATFORMMETHODOLOGYABOUTCONTACT

Scope

Scope of the Interactive Map:

Time Frame: The map spans data from six years, beginning in May 2018 until May 2024.

Incident Frame: The incidents comprise pushbacks, attempted pushbacks, and cases of crossing that lead to deaths and disappearances (the definitions for these can be found in the methodology).

Source Frame: The sources included open-source information. Additionally, in a few cases, information that was shared with BVMN privately. 

Scope of the Collaborative Posts:

The collaborative posts are based on summaries and additional information acquired during the development of the interactive map and a two-year long research project conducted by the Border Violence Monitoring Network. The scope of this project therefore builds on the scope of the map and the research project that traced the development and implementation of border technologies since 2018 (see forthcoming report on the website of BVMN).  

Scope of the Timelines:

The scope of the timelines comprises three case studies of different incidents between December 2023 and April 2024. The source scope includes all information found in openly available sources.  

Methodology

Methodology of the Interactive Map:

Incident Sources:Information about the incidents has been acquired through analyzing documents, social media content, news media articles and correspondence with actors. They were identified through the search engine Google, with the help of Google dorking and source tracing. The source material has been categorized in news, academia, NGOs, and state actors. Where possible, we tried to trace secondary sources to primary sources; however, in many cases this was not possible or verifiable. In cases where several sources were available, we have cross-referenced the provided information. In the case of contradicting information, we have mentioned the contradictions in the case descriptions. For example, when news outlets named different numbers of people involved in an incident, we have provided a range. Some, if not most of the events, present limited sources and as such we cannot guarantee full accuracy. For transparency, each event includes tags with an overview of how each event was qualitatively cross-referenced, as well as the original source links when available. 

We have categorized them based on the following definitions:

Category	Definition
News	Any information gathered from either print media, online newspapers, or TV news. In most cases, these were secondary sources.
Academia	Any information gathered from academic reports or through personal contacts with academics.
NGOs/INGOs	Any information gathered from activist groups, non-governmental organizations or international organizations. In most cases these were secondary sources, ranging from testimonies of PoM, but also state sources.
State actors	Any information gathered from people acting as state actors. We have included authorities from the North of Cyprus, which we do not recognise as a state in this, as they have similar information access/sources to state actors.

The sources within these categories were the following:

Category	Source
News	Kıbrıs Postası, Reuters, The Guardian, AP News, ntv, Cumhuriyet, The Daily Star Lebanon, DW, Al Jazeera, PhileNews, Cyprus Mail, Kathimerini, Knews, Politis, France 24, SigmaLive, AlphaNews, The Public Source, Cyprus Times, ABC News, Arab News, Info Migrants, CNA, Wikipedia, Reporter, ant1live, naharnet, The New Arab, Neos Kosmos, euronews, Megaphone, Daraj, North Press Agency. In some cases, the articles were accessed with the help of the Wayback Machine by the Internet Archive.
Academia	Nicos Trimikliniotis
NGOs/INGOs	Cyprus Refugee Council, Human Rights Watch, UNIFIL, KISA, CEDAR Centre for Legal Studies, Aegean Boat Report, Watch The Med by Alarm Phone, ECRE, Consolidated Rescue Group, IOM, EuromedRights, Border Violence Monitoring Network
State actors	Department of State, Frontex, Cyprus Ministry of Interiors, Turkish Coast Guard, Cyprus JRCC

Incident categorization:

This map collects data on five categories of events of violence against people on the move that either took place in the Cypriot SAR zone or were on their way to Cyprus. The categories of incidents are: 1) pushbacks from Cyprus, 2) pushbacks from Cyprus with chain refoulement, 3) attempted pushbacks from Cyprus, 4) deaths, 5) missing persons. Some events fall into more than one of these categories.

The incidents are defined as follows:

Category	Definition
Pushback	A pushback is “the informal cross-border expulsion (without due process) of individuals or groups to another country” (sourced here). Pushbacks from Cyprus are pushbacks from within the Cypriot SAR (search and rescue) zone coinciding with the Nicosia FIR (flight information region), the Cypriot territorial waters or land territory under effective control of the Republic of Cyprus.
Pushback with chain refoulement	A pushback (see definition above) with chain refoulement is a pushback to the country of departure and then subsequently a pushback to another third country, often their country of origin.
Attempted pushback	An attempted pushback (see definition above) is categorized when sufficient evidence has been presented on the intention of conducting a pushback either through statements or practices preparing a pushback. However, due to various reasons, no pushback was conducted.
Dead person(s)	An incident involving the confirmed death or deaths of people on the move is tagged with this category.
Missing person(s)	An incident involving missing people on the move is tagged with this category.

Further forms of mistreatment categorization:

We have tagged the incident of violence with other forms of mistreatment that were mentioned. They categories were defined based on the following definitions:

Category	Definition
Ramming of boat	Deliberately colliding with a boat carrying people on the move to cause damage or intimidation.
Threats with guns	Using firearms to intimidate or coerce people on the move.
Handcuffing	Restraint using handcuffs, often used to limit mobility of people on the move.
Use of electric shocks	Using devices like tasers to administer electric shocks.
Beatings	Physically striking people on the move with repeated blows, sometimes resulting in injury.
Detention	Holding people on the move in custody.
Creating waves with boats	Maneuvering vessels in a way that they create large waves in order to destabilize, drown, or intimidate boats carrying people on the move.
Stealing of possessions	Taking personal belongings from people on the move without permission.
Injuring people	Causing general physical harm to people on the move.
Family separation	Forcibly separating family members from each other.
Non-assistance	Failing to provide rescue to boats in distress.
Refusing medicine/medical treatment	Denying medical care or medicine to people on the move.
Lack of food and/or water	Withholding essential sustenance from individuals.
Delayed Rescue	Intentionally postponing rescues of people on the move.

Location and Source Verification:

We have color-coded each event based on the specificity of their location. The locations were assigned based on textual and visual material available. As different types and amounts of information were available for each incident, we have graded them based on classifications of location information density. Table (1.1) describes what kinds of information were required to meet each category of specificity. The flowchart (1.2) underneath illustrates how the location specificity rating was determined. Tables (2) provide a series of guidelines for how location was calculated in the absence of precise location information. 

(1) Location Specificity

(1.1) Accuracy Table
Location specificity and accuracy is attributed based on the quantity and quality of verified location details for each event.

Classification	Available information
LOW ACCURACY/SPECIFICITY	No data OR departure location
MEDIUM ACCURACY/SPECIFICITY	Cardinal direction from shore AND exact location at the shore OR approximation of location at the shore based on details of journey
HIGH ACCURACY/SPECIFICITY	Exact distance from shore (in nautical miles) AND cardinal direction from the shore OR location at shore
EXACT	Coordinates shared by people on the move OR social media verification

(1.2) Specificity Flowchart


(2) Location guidelines 
We use calculation guidelines to provide transparency and structure when determining the location of incidents with varying information density. The guidelines do not aim to reach the most accurate location, but make the process of location assignment transparent. In table (2.1), we explain how we have differentiated the calculation guidelines based on the type of incident. In (2.2), the types of information are differentiated by trajectory information from which we determine vectors of travel and distance information from which we determine the location on the path of travel. The guidelines are the following: 

(2.1) Target location guidelines

Incident	Type of Location
Pushback	The location indicated or identified is the location where the people were detected. Deviations of this are described in the “context” field.
Attempted pushback	The location indicated or identified is the location where the people were detected. Deviations of this are described in the “context” field.
Pushback with chain-refoulement	The location indicated or identified is the location where the people were detected. Deviations of this are described in the “context” field.
Dead Person(s)	The location indicated or identified is the location where the dead person(s) was/ were found or, if they were not found, died. Deviations of this are described in the “context” field.
Missing Person(s)	The location indicated or identified is the location where the person(s) went missing. Deviations of this are described in the “context” field.

(2.2) Location calculation guidelines

Location guidelines: Named locations were determined based on the following guidelines

Information	Guideline
Location of city, district or defined small strip of land	When a city, district or defined small strip of land (such as a national park) location was named we determine its location based on the generic coordinates given by Google, when typing in “[location name] coordinates”.
Country of administrative area	When countries or large administrative areas named, we chose determined generic location points for the location calculation Cyprus: The generic location chosen is the area of Cape Greco (generic coordinates given by Google) Lebanon: The generic location chosen is the city of Tripoli (generic coordinates given by Google)   Syria: The generic location chosen is the city of Tartous (generic coordinates given by Google)

Direction guidelines: Directions from locations were calculated based on the following guidelines Information  Guideline Cardinal direction If a cardinal direction is named, the following angles were used: North: 0° North-East: 45° East: 90° South-East: 135° South: 180° South-West: 225° West: 270° North-West: 315° Specific departure and arrival locations If specific departure and arrival locations were named and no specific locations were known, the angle between the locations was calculated to determine the direction. No direction information, but shore location known If no direction information was known, but a shore location was, the direction was chosen based the cardinal-geographic area of the location and their assigned angles Location in Cyprus  Location is in the north (cardinal area): 360/0°  Location is in the east: 90° Location is in the south-east: 135° Location is in the south: 180°  Location is in the west: 225° Location in Lebanon: 270° Distance guidelines: The distances were calculated based on the following guidelines

Information	Guideline
Distance from shore in nm, km or miles (with a margin of error of ±1 nautical mile)	If a specific distance in nautical miles, kilometers or miles is named, we first determine the closest shore location from the location information, and then measure the distance given in the determined direction.
Undefined distance from shore location with administrative sea area	If a specific shore location and an administrative sea area (such as territorial waters) is named, but no distance information is given, we first determine the closest shore location and then in the determined direction, the median distance between the shore location and administrative water boundary.
Undefined distance from shore location	If a specific shore location, but no distance information is given, we first determine the closest shore location and then in the determined direction, find the location on the territorial water boundary.
Undefined distance without shore location, only journey information	If the only information given is the journey (between two countries or administrative land areas), the distance was calculated at the median location between the departure and arrival location.
Exact coordinates	If an exact location can be found through coordinates shared by people on the move or via cross referencing social media/visual data and satellite imagery, we will provide the exact coordinates and determine them by putting them into Google maps.

Data on technologies:

The range and number of radars was sourced from the JRCC (presentation).  However, the data is not exact, as the quality of the image is not very high and part of the image is cut.

Camera data was sourced from the JRCC (presentation). 

Mobile surveillance unit data was sourced from the JRCC (website) and from a two-year research project, which will be published on the Border Violence Monitoring Network website.

Drone data was sourced from tenders (Drone 1, Drone 2) and from a two-year research project, which will be published on the Border Violence Monitoring Network website. 

SAR (search and rescue) Zone was taken from the GIS page of the Cyprus Airspace Management Cell (linked here). 

Territorial waters outline the twelve nautical miles (NM) off of a territory’s coast over which a state has sovereign jurisdiction shapefile sourced from Marine Regions.



Methodology of the Collaborative Posts:

Data collection: The collaborative posts relied mainly on data from the interactive map and a two-year long research project conducted by the Border Violence Monitoring Network. The full report will be published on the BVMN website. Further contextualizing information was collected on social, political, and legal frameworks from publicly available data. This ensured a critical understanding of the systemic structures of border violence.

Collaborative analysis and writing: Multiple people worked on the text, bringing in different information from various sources to collaboratively define the analyses and arguments.



 
Methodology for the Timelines:

Data collection: The timelines were constructed based on publicly available information that was collected for the interactive map.

Data assembling: The timelines were assembled based on the chronological happenings of the events. In some cases little details were known, we have mentioned gaps in knowledge transparently in the videos. The original sources are either named in the script or shown on the video. When we used video footage, we linked the original footage in the description. We highlighted and gave priority to data of survivors of the events, as we position ourselves in solidarity with people on the move.

Raw Data

The raw data embedded in the interactive map includes the categorization, sources and incident descriptions. The full spreadsheet is linked here.