The data sources for the Human Security Filter (HSF) are a mix of official databases and open-source information collected from online news outlets and social media platforms (e.g., Facebook pages/groups, Telegram groups, YouTube, TikTok). The HSF instrument is aimed to predict vulnerabilities of incoming migrant groups using aggregate data. The reason for combining data input for each indicator is to try and capture as reliable of an image as possible. While traditional databases in the field of migration may be more reliable [1], they are not complete and not always fully representative [2]. In such situation social media can become a very useful source of information, especially considering how important different platforms are for migrants to collect information on their migration journey and/or connect with their communities. This being said, the use of social media content does bring with it its own challenges such as data reliability and validity and potential human rights risks.
Official databases for the different indicators
Innate factors
- Age:
- UNICEF Data Warehouse;
- United Nations Population Division: International Migrant Stock (under 18 and +65);
- Eurostat: (1) Asylum applicants under 18 years old; (2) First permits (0-17 years); (3) Asylum applications processed under the accelerated procedure, under 18 years old; (4) Third country nationals found illegally present;
- Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography;
- Gender and sexual orientation:
- United Nations Population Division: International Migrant Stock;
- Eurostat;
- Knowledge Centre on Migration and Demography;
Situational factors
- Exposure to violence/Experience of chain push-backs
- Border Violence Monitoring Network;
- UNHCR offices in Western Balkans (for number of pushbacks);
- Danish Refugee Council;
- The Migrants File Project [3];
- Pushback Map.
- Asylum/protection measures in transit countries
- National legislation in transit countries;
- Policies aimed at separating families/Policies requiring detention on arrival
- National legislation in transit countries and/or destination countries;
Social Media Content
Online Risk Indicators
RI1: conversations surrounding best border crossing points;
RI2: posts searching for smugglers;
RI3: posts by families searching for missing migrants;
RI4: posts advertising human smuggling services;
RI5: posts advertising successfully completed journeys/detailing migrants’ experience in transit;
RI6: labour advertisements;
RI7: open source information on asylum/protection legislation.
RI8: social media posts in diaspora groups advertising work opportunities/positive comments on the standard of living in the country of destination;
RI9: online information related to political/social/economic negative events taking place in country of origin;
RI10: online alerts of people in distress at sea (for Mediterranean route);
RI11: public information on extreme weather conditions on migration routes (e.g., storms at sea, extreme snowfall, extreme heatwaves);
RI12: online information related to mistreatment/persecution or certain groups in country of origin (e.g., use of FGM, persecutions against different religious/sexual minorities)
Online Data Sources
- Social media channels, specifically Telegram, Vkontakte, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube [4];
- Platforms advertising work offers;
- News sources in country of origins;
- Diaspora social media groups;
Entity Extraction for Risk Indicators
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to age/gender/race/ethnicity; For this the following keywords can be employed:
- Babies
- Infants
- (Unaccompanied) minors
- (Migrant) children
- Lgbt migrant
- Lgbt refugee
- Refugee women
- Migrant women
- Refugee children
- Asylum seeker minors
- Asylum seeker
- Elderly
- Disabled
- [Nationality [5]] child/children
- [Nationality] minor/minors
- [Nationality] woman/women
- Pregnant women
- Newborn
- Forcibly displaced children
- Malang (Pashto, Punjabi) [a poor helpless person]
- Charsimalang (Pashto, Punjabi) [a person that has fallen on hard times because of using narcotics]
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to corruption/violence/abuse of authorities in countries of transit/origin; For this the following keywords can be employed:
- Police bribe
- Police corruption [6]
- Police brutality
- Coast guard brutality
- Police abuse
- Coast guard abuse
- Police custody/Coast guard custody
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to means of travel: (a) potentially dangerous means of transport (e.g., hidden compartments in vehicles/dinghies/walking); (b) individual or group [7]; The following keywords can be used:
- Suffocated in truck
- Hidden compartment
- Overcrowded dinghy
- Drowned in the sea
- Sea rescue operation
- Incidents at sea
- Saved from drowning
- Saved from starvation
- Saved from dehydration
- Distress at sea
- Shipwreck
- Non-assistance
- Mafia (Western Balkans) [people smuggler]
- Agent (Western Balkans) [people smuggler]
- Libya burger [people smuggler]
- Agadez burger [people smuggler]
- Connecting centre [A bar, restaurant or other locations or premises where migrants, smugglers and traffickers meet, network, and socialize]
- Kaçakçı (Turkish) [people smuggler]
- Organizatör (Turkish) [people smuggler]
- ghachag-e insan (Dari) [human trafficking/smuggling]
- Ghachag (Dari) [illegal transport]
- tejarat-e insan (Dari) [human trade]
- toudu (Chinese) [stowaway]
- yimin zousi (Chinese) [migrant smuggling]
- renkou fanmai (Chinese) [human trafficking]
- Samsara (Arabic) [smuggler]
- Passeur (Mali) [smuggler]
- Kachakbar (Farsi, Dari) [Afghans and Iranians will refer thus to their smuggler.]
- Ghat kachakbar (Pashto) [One of the persons in charge of a smuggling operation. It is the ghat kachakbar that determines which individuals will be in which group, according to payments that have been cleared.]
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to imprisonment [8]. For this the following keywords can be employed:
- Prison [Dark place]
- Safe lagana (Urdu) [Keeping clients shut until payments are cleared.]
- Graukhana (Farsi) [To catch; house; house or room where people are kept shut while payments are cleared.]
- Information related to work opportunities [9]
- Person offering employment (Pakistan) [Chandury, Choudhri, Chowdhry, Chaudri, Chaudhri]
- Information related to violence
- Rape/Sexual abuse [Something I didn’t want to do/Be friendly]
- Rape
- Forced labour
- Slavery
- Police brutality
- Drowning
- Missing
- Murdered
- Border violence
- Left to die
- Exploitation
- Uptown [Libya, Algeria, and other North African countries]
- Passport taken/stolen
- Robbed
- Beaten (with a hose/feet soles)
- Whipping
- Militia
- Armed men
- Ransom
- Handcuffed
- The peanuts on the market [Rape]
- I fell from a wall [Euphemism for being run over by police forces]
- Bali Walid/Kufra [Places synonym with human trafficking]
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to torture. The following keywords can be used:
- Torture
- Forced drug use
- Dead
- Electric shock
- Multimedia and/or textual information related to pushbacks:
- [violent] pushback
- Forced return
- Availability of food/water/shelter/sanitation facilities/material resources:
- Starvation
- Dehydration
- Malnutrition
- Lack of access to food
- Lack of access to water
- Lack of sanitation
- Lack of access to drinking water
- Lack of access to shelter
- No shelter
- No food
- Suffocated
- Suffocation
- Death
- Neglected
- Frozen
- Displacement
- Emergency
- Hungry
- Thirsty
- Overcrowding
- Homeless
Resources
- Due to the information being often collected directly from migrants employing structured and unstructured collection techniques such as questionnaires
- They are not representative as there may be categories of people who are underrepresented in official statistics due to the methodology employed, people who hide from authorities and thus avoid their data being recorded and/or the data may be old as this is a rapidly evolving field.
- Though this initiative has concluded in 2016 it still provides very useful information on the causes of death of migrants across different routes.
- Migrants also employ extensively platforms such as WhatsApp and/or Viber but such platforms would not fall under the open source information criteria.
- The term “nationality” should be replaced with nationalities associated with migrant groups on that particular route.
- It is important to remember that attitudes are specific, which means that it is important to clearly define the authority in question, e.g., Hungarian Police…
- People travelling as groups can be less at risk of violence than people traveling alone.
- It is important to remember that when migrants speak of prison it can refer to anything from prisons to different types of detention centres and even open centres or garages, vans where they were kept against their will.
- This can be linked to availability of material resources, but also to sexual and labour exploitation.
