Team 621Fatal Journey: Improving Data on Missing or Perished Refugees

TEAMAnton Apostolatos [Software]

Leonard Bronner [Data]

Asad Khaliq [Product]

Quentin Perrot [Research]

SPONSOR & MENTORBureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration [Lyric Doolan, Rebecca Alvarado and Evan Stewart]

Paul Narain

10INTERVIEWS COMPLETED

DESCRIPTIONCollecting and sourcing missing persons data and identifying the deceased during crisis situations, to better determine if a person reported missing has perished. This will allow us to contact family members -- strengthening the bonds of family and community and instilling humanitarian advocacy and respect for the dignity of life.

TOTAL: 57

A high percentage of bodies of refugees who perished crossing the Mediterranean are unidentified and buried in unmarked graves, with

loved ones given no closure.

1,011,712 arrivals in the EU through the Mediterranean in 2015

3770 persons perished at sea in the Mediterranean in 2015

35% of remains identified in the Mediterranean states

12 out of 55 headstones buried between October and December 2015 in a Lesvos, Greece cemetery were marked

"Many shipwreck victims are never recovered, but about 1,500 have been brought to Italy since 2013. So far, just over 200 have been identified."

… because there’s a missing link.

(22 of 24 individuals identified after relative outreach complete in a landmark study)

Data

Refugee Trust & Buy-In

Number on t-shirt

Single, non-ID

check-in

Clearinghouse safe deposit box

Clearinghouse periodic, discrete check-in

Continuous state tracking

Pre-trip inform authorities

The box of consumption

ID info on t-shirt

Creating the Link

Refugees

DeadAlive

Guidemakers

Refugees family & friends

NGO Forensics

ICRC(Tidball-Binz)

ICMP(Parsons)

NGO

ICRC(Federica, Kirsty)

IOM(Kelly, Tara)

UNHCR(Guido, Iosto)

Local Authorities

Police ForensicsMaritime Authorities

FRONTEX Coast Guard

NATO OP. ENDEAVOR

EU NAVFOR MED

NGO Humanitarian Fleets

MSF STC

MOAS(Sweetnam)

Ministry of the Interior

MRCC

Smugglers SaboteurGatekeeper

Critical buy-in

Pressure

Coordination

Direct orderDataDirectiveCooperation

Cooperation

Cooperation

Contact

Contact

Contact

Info

Contact

Customer DiscoveryHypothesis 1

Refugees are willing to disclose identifying information if it can give their families closure in the event of their death(ICRC, first responders - water, law enforcement)

Experiments - Discuss use of conceptual dogtags containing phone numbers of loved ones

Andreas Kleiser [Director of Policy, International Committee for Missing Persons]

Ida Jeng [Global Communication and Strategy, REFUNITE]

Paul Narain [Hoover Fellow]Karen Ferguson [Deputy Director, International Rescue Committee]

Samuel [Eritrean Refugee]

Results - The trust concern will vary extremely from case-to-case. Samuel, an Eritrean refugee, rejected trust as an issue

(saying he had nothing to hide) and instead expressed practical concerns around our solution (highly constrained in Libya).

We must more finely understand trust concerns per route and type of person, and deployment concerns per route.

Hypothesis 2Law enforcement agencies will be able to use this information to

identify found bodies(Law Enforcement Agencies, ICRC, ICMP)

Laila Soudi [Critical Research Co-ordinator, Stanford]

Frederick Rustler [Organizes Restart Network]

Pete Sweetnam [CEO, MOAS]

Eric Herr [Water Purification / Mortuary Affairs]

Experiments - Discuss how conceptual dogtags used by refugees containing phone numbers of loved ones might be used by authorities

[MVP -- t-shirt with sharpied phone number]

Results - Primary concern is not (currently) whether they are able -- in some cases, they are not willing to use this information

to identify found bodies, due to misaligned priorities. Organizations with incentive to use information to identify found

bodies may not have jurisdiction to do so.

Notes for each Mission Model Canvas section are in the “slide notes” section

Key Partners Key Activities

Key Resources

Value Propositions Buy-in & Support Beneficiaries/Stakeholders

Deployment

Mission Budget / Costs Mission Achievement / Success Factors

Local authorities: Greek Coast Guard, Greek Police, Turkish coast guard, Turkish law enforcement

Humanitarian Fleet: MSF, MOAS, SeaWatch

Large NGOs: UNHCR, Doctors of the World, Red Crescent

Frontex (Operation Triton), NATO Operation Endeavor, EU’s NAVFORMED (Operation Sophia)

PRM: Western Hemisphere Office

Refugee support groups and guidemakers

National Ministries of the Interior

What problem?For refugees and their families: Refugees are unable to know what happened to their families

For Trace the Face:Part of the ICRC’s mission is to connect people with their families, but currently it is being asymmetrically served by only allowing survivors to find value in their service

For IOM, UNHCR: Accurate, reliable data on where refugees come from mission statements + strategic/policy planning)

Local Forensics AgentsNot able to identify bodies easily because lack of prior knowledge about deceased.

Value?This will allow organizations to contact the next of kin of the deceased. Refugees will achieve closure about what happened to their families. Trace the face will piggy-back off buy-in with local authorities and be able to assist in serving those who have passed away as well. IOM will use the information that is gained through friends and family in order to update their database. For forensics agents, this data makes it easy to identify bodies.

Families of Refugees (Eastern Med. and Central Med. Routes)

Tracing Department (ICRC): Kirsty McDonald, Federica Riccardi

IOM: Leonard Doyle, Julia BlackUNHCR: Iosto Ibba, Guido Vittorio

Local Forensics Agents: Penelope Miniati

Convincing refugees of additional benefit of working with us

Convincing local authorities to use the information that they are being provided to contact next of kin.

Cleaning data before it is used

Updating information on missing refugees (IOM, ICRC and people looking: NGOs, refugees)

Communicating with families in a respectful and ethical manner

Buy-in from refugees will be achieved through guide makers, who will influence the refugees and word of mouth. on-the-ground influencers (small grassroots NGOs) and through “mobile commons”

Buy in for local forensics office and local police will be achieved through pressure from NGOs and the Council of Europe onto Ministries of the Interior that force the local authorities to act. governmental mandate and by helping them easier identify deceased.

Relationship with PRM will be supplied through mentor

IOMs Missing Migrants Project

ICRC Trace the Face database

UNHCR: Syria Regional Refugee Response database

Forensics agent resources (time)

Hellenic coast guard’s data

Refugees will need to be convinced before they start the sea crossing.

Deployment will be done either through IOM, UNHCR and ICRC due to their gravitas in the field - if our solution ends up being for on-the-ground NGOs.

Key partnerships with existing on the ground practitioners, integrating with existing practices

Smaller nimble NGOs or more daring anti-establishment NGOs willing to help refugees travel

Mission Achievement: Has connected with a friend or family member thought lost or has received the information that a friend or family member has passed away. (1) To provide an in-depth analysis of available data on migrant deaths, and more specifically, collect more accurate “Country Source” data and (2) to update the challenges the community identifying/tracing missing migrants faces to be shared with other crisis regions. Reconnect family links. Identify corpses more accurately, more quickly and more cheaply - in complete accordance with lawsMetrics: Indicator variable whether knows if friends or family is dead, number of missing migrants with correct country / number of missing migrants, Number of families reconnected, time and money spent per identification, identified migrants / total dead migrants seen

The budget comes from organizations that are on the ground (NGOs, UNHCR) but also from other beneficiaries such as the State Dept. and European

Governments

Data capture and information retrieval

Data capture hardware, servers, initial awareness and distribution

Local authorities

Guidemakers

First responders on the water (MSF, Moas, Coast guards): Miriam Lafferty, Mark Gordon

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

Migrants: Samuel, 22-year old refugee who crossed the Mediterranean from Libya, waiting for his brother and fiance to join

● Uncertainty of the stages of transit, with no guarantees of safety

● Uncertainty of communication with friends & family

● Get across the Mediterranean to safety

● Make sure their family knows of their fate

● Assurance that family members will have closure in the event of their death

● Families will be contacted by local authorities, based on data provided by members that are found as deceased.

● Local authorities reach out to family members; this gives migrants the peace of mind that their families will know their fate

● Knowledge that family will be notified in case something goes wrong on their journey.

Customer Archetype: Eritrean, 22 years old, has family in Eritrea● Sufficiently motivated to try and escape a zone of conflict or persecution, despite unclear potential for success and no assurances of safety● Uses personal network to understand how to pursue Mediterranean crossing ● Psychologically under significant stress and no freedom of movement under smuggler control ● Has no access to phones, with minimal contact with family across months ● Often using all or most of their wealth as a last ditch effort to ensure safety, all-or-nothing approach● Often don’t speak the language of the countries they are embarking from (in transit phase) or the country they are travelling to

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

Migrants’ Families

● Uncertainty of the stages of transit, with no guarantees of safety

● Uncertainty of communication with friends & family

● No way of knowing what future awaits them even if they reach safer shores, or how they will be processed

● Assured transit from conflict to safety

● Keeping family & friends while travelling

● Ensuring quality of life upon arrival to a safer region through personal networks

● Ways to contact and stay in touch with friends and family making the journey alongside them

● Wanting family to know they are safe when they are traveling.

● Higher potential for a smooth resettlement and integration

● Families will be contacted by local authorities, based on data provided by members that are found as deceased.

● Certainty and closure about family member's passing.

● Receive the body of family members for burial.

● Knowledge that family will be notified in case something goes wrong on their journey.

Samuel’s brother and fiance, who waited to hear from Samuel for months and are now waiting for legal authorization to join him

● Motivated to try and escape a zone of conflict or persecution, despite unclear potential for success and no assurances of safety● Psychologically under significant stress● Often using all or most of their wealth as a last ditch effort to ensure safety, all-or-nothing approach● Often don’t speak the language of the country that they live in● Close-knit family -- willing to risk their safety for the rest of the group, desire to know of family member’s fate

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

Local Forensics Agents (Morris Tidball-Binz, Penelope Miniati)

● Lack of communication with “the other side” -- the families or loved ones of refugees who they can connect with forensics data to successfully match + reconnect

● Have to work with local external stakeholders such as fishermen to inefficiently gather data on missing migrants

● Successfully identify the origin, identity, and demographic of missing or perished persons

● Connect results of technology based forensics with other data sources to match + reconnect perished persons

● Give authorities information on origin and identity of found persons

● Better collaboration with authorities, who can now be provided with contact details to link each body to an origin/destination

● Better coordination with stakeholders such as UNHCR, who desire more accurate data on incoming migrants● Direct phone or

communication line to a deceased individual’s family or loved ones

● Easier information gathering, would reduce necessity to talk to outside stakeholders and provide greater certainty of body’s identity

● Much simpler and easier connection with deceased person’s family or loved ones

● Easily readable contact information on body/clothing of perished persons

● Contact information can provide demographic data to be shared with IOM, UNHCR

Customer Archetypes

● Highly educated; undergraduate or graduate degree in science or forensic investigation as well as certification in the field ● Often graduated as a doctor ● Interested in human rights, humanitarian investigations● They push for forensic anthropology and forensic medical sciences applied to humanitarian advocacy

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

ICRC Protection and Tracing Officers

● Local authorities lack the expertise, networks and resources to increase chance of identification

● There is a lack of interest; investigations sometimes do not attempt to establish identity when they are “irregular migrants”

● Compassion fatigue with death count rising

● Overcome the complex nature of the search for family members

● Collaboratively interface with other organizations on the ground (e.g. IOM field agents) to address inbound requests

● Make it as easy as possible for family looking for family to publish their information

● Reconnect families with their loves ones, even if that means with their body

● Directly reach out to families using identifying information

● Easier method of identification means ‘interest’ is irrelevant; authorities pursue identification regardless of migrant status

● Expertise is less important, increasing rate of identification

● Connecting more refugees to their families

Customer Archetypes● Organization

○ ICRC mandate is to find + connect missing people and families○ Facilitates migrants finding loved ones by collecting information about whether someone is

looking for you and allowing you to publish your photo + contact info○ The organization must navigate strict data protection regulations in Europe○ Work with the National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to keep information on file

that is not allowed to be publicly retransmitted

● Personal○ Workers typically have bachelor degrees and work experience,

>30 yrs old○ Often speaks more than one official ICRC language

(English/French) such as Arabic ○ Very hands on approach to work. Needs to be able to interface

with families that are searching for missing people.○ Emotionally stable -> due to complex nature of material○ Want to collaborate with other stakeholders -> IOM and UNHCR

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

IOM and UNHCR Data Analysts

● Diverse data sources with varying regularity and reliability (i.e. not possible to ask the deceased. Boats might completely disappear.)

● Extensive collaboration required between field agents, data analysts, and external stakeholders to verify and collect data

● Collect accurate, reliable data on migrant journeys and missing/perished migrants

● Publish reports based on this data to fulfill mandates and inform policy, strategic decisions

● Use data to strengthen humanitarian advocacy

● More data to inform strategy and policy, and strengthen humanitarian advocacy

● More data leading to higher coverage of potentially missing migrant population

● IOM and UNHCR gets information about deceased refugees and where they are from.

● If a boat has capsized and disappeared without anyones knowledge. Then the identification of bodies from those boats, will allow for more complete information for UNHCR and IOM.

● Sourced information from other connected organizations who have data on missing persons and growing their database to produce more matches

● IOM and UNHCR will get some personalized information from the migrants that are found - for better database.

Customer Archetypes● Organization

○ IOM, UNHCR mandates to strengthen humanitarian advocacy ○ The organization must navigate strict data protection regulations in Europe○ IOM mandate focus on data collection and provision

● Personal○ Workers typically have bachelor degrees and work experience,

>25 yrs old○ Need to be able to manage extensive lists of contacts, maintain

positive relationships with each and corroborate information○ Emotionally stable -> due to complex nature of material○ Want to collaborate with other stakeholders and each other○ Comfort with a degree of uncertainty due to irregular nature of

work despite data/stats background which demands rigor

Buy in / Support from GatekeepersRefugee Support Groups

Maurice Stierl [Watch the Med; UCDavis Professor]

Frederick Rustler [Organizes Restart Network]

Samuel [Eritrean refugee]

Refugees trust these groups, and so will use recommended solutions

Create images with proposed solution (e.g. diagram explaining

how/where to sharpie on your clothing/person)

Propagate images on Refugee Support Groups on Facebook, informal WhatsApp groups and directly through influencers

Image/solution organically propagates through support networks

Becomes accepted practice, establishing trust (for us/sponsor)

Solution is recommended by on-the-ground orgs in contact with migrants

… potentially opening the door for higher fidelity solutions that allow increased data collection and/or real time tracking using pre-

established trust

National Ministries of the InteriorSimon Robins [University of York, Mediterranean Missing Project]

Andreas Kleiser [Policy at International Commission on Missing Persons[]

Emma Bonino [Ex.Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy]

Forensic examiners begin to find dogtags on found bodies, and refer data to local authorities

Local authorities have data (... but may not use it?)

Pressure applied to policymakers from NGOs, media, public opinion, etc, to use this information to reconnect as per humanitarian laws and respect for dignity of human life

Local authorities begin to search for identifying dogtags, creating standard operating procedure, using this information to reconnect bodies with their loved ones to provide closure

...potentially push for greater database robustness and sharing identifying across locations and organizations

Time

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Prove that our method helps families

Become routine for journey via greater influencer and institutional

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MVP

What - sharpied t-shirt

Why - low-cost, more easily deployable, less trust and incentive barrier, less legal issues

Who - refugees, people creating guides, migrant families