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

TOTAL: 77

DESCRIPTIONImproving data on missing and perished refugees. Bridging the gap between local authorities and families of deceased refugees in order to provide families with information about their loved ones. This will strengthen the bonds of family and community and instilling humanitarian advocacy and respect for the dignity of life.

Customer DiscoveryHypothesis 1

Migrants across different routes are (a) willing to supply multiple pieces of data beyond just a phone number and (b) will use a

smartphone to do so(migrants & families)

Experiments - Asked Refugees what type of data they would be willing to supply. And more importantly, asked them whether they would be willing to supply date of births. Furthermore, we

presented them with a method of doing so by smartphone application.

Samuel [Refugee]

Jamal [Refugee]

Ali [Refugee]

Hazim [REACH]

Results - All the refugees we talked to said they would be more than willing to supply additional information if it made sure that

their families know they had perished. This information included date birth. However, refugees fear that smartphones may be

stolen or confiscated by smugglers.

Action - It is crucial for us to find out what information the local authorities want and need in order to contact the families.

Hypothesis 2 Existing Red Cross and Red Crescent structure will let us easily

deploy our potential solution.(law enforcement, ICRC, ICMP)

Federica Riccardi [ICRC]

Morris Tidball - Binz [ICRC]

Palantir Employee [Palantir]Tamara Last [Deaths at European Borders Database]

Experiments - We talked to a number of people working on deploying different solutions for refugees and how they could

help us with that.

Results - The local Red Cross and Red Crescent chapters are in fact generally independent of the ICRC, they are autonomous. While they often execute on combined projects (e.g. trace the

face), we will need buy in from these separately.

Action - Talk to local Red Cross and Red Crescent chapters for deployment. Work with the ICRC for for buy-in to pressure local

governments to make local authorities use the data.

Khartoum

Sebha

Agadez

Tamanrasset

GhatGatroun

Faya-Largeau

Nyala

Cairo

AlexandriaBenghaziSalloum

Tripoli

Ghadames

Niamey

Tazerbo

Dirkou

NIGERIA

MALI

WEST AFRICA

ERITREA

SOMALIA

SOUTH SUDAN

SUDANCHAD

EGYPT

LIBYAALGERIA

TUNISIA

NIGER

ETHIOPIA

SYRIA

PALESTINEZawiya

LampedusaMALTA

Sicily

ITALY

2015: 153,842 (15.3%)

2016: 164,822 (48.4%)

Source: IOM, IFRC

Addis Ababa

N’Djamena

TunisAlgiers

Damascus

Abuja

Legend

AFFECTED COUNTRYTransit/Relevant Cities

Smuggling Hub

Main RouteSecondary

Route

Red Cross Hub and Lang.

Sea Route

Critical Activities: DetailedTi

me

Guidemakers and influencersConvince these groups and their leaders to disseminate information on our productBuy-In: Motivated intrinsically by helping migrants and refugees

ICRC and ICMPGet ICRC and ICMP buy-in to use their local chapters to put pressure on local authoritiesBuy-In: Part of their missions

Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human RightsCouncil of Europe to put pressure on Greek and Italian governments to make it official policy to identify bodiesPressure Italy to expand the role of Special CommissionerPressure Greece to create an independent commissionBuy-In: Already happening. Council of Europe is already focused on this.

US Embassies in Italy and GreecePut pressure on local governments to convince local authorities to use the data we provideBuy-In: Need ICRC and ICMP backing to show that it is worthwhile

Local Red Cross chaptersDistribute bracelets to people wanting to start their journeyBuy-In: Need ICRC buy-in to create a transorganizational project

Acquire bracelets and sharpiesCost: Sharpies: $0.375, Bracelets: $0.19

Day 1 - ∞

Day 15 - 300

Day 1 - ∞

Day 100 - 300

Day 100 - 300

Day 60 - ∞

Legend

Resource Deployment

Lobbying/Support

Key Partners and Critical ResourcesPartner/Resource Example What they provide Why they do it

Suppliers (tools) AliExpress, Wholesalers

● Sharpies -- $0.37 / piece (multi-use)

● Bracelets -- $0.19 / piece (single use)

$$$, branding

Local Red Cross National Societies (e.g. Sudan)

● Distribution of information via pamphlets, social media● Distribution of markers / bracelets● Act as intermediary between families and local

authorities

Part of their mission to help reconnect migrants/families -- ideally need ICRC buy-in to create transorganizational initiative

Coast GuardsHumanitarian Fleet

MSF / MOAS / SeaWatch / Save the Children

● Pick up bodies

● Transfer to forensics/local authorities

Already follow this procedure

Forensics ICRC / Local Authorities / Hospitals

● Transfer phone numbers / DOB to local authorities

● Transfer cleaned data (e.g. country of origin) to authorities

Frustrated by missing link between bodies and families, waste of resources on DNA/isotopic testing

Local Authorities Greek Police / Italian Police

● Contact and inform families ○ May need:

■ Translators ■ Ethical/psychological training

● Proof of Death Process ○ Collect information from families via ICRC○ Transfer information to prosecutor○ Send proof of death to families via ICRC

Public and policy pressure, humanitarian advocacy

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

Greek Coast Guard, Greek Police, Italian Police

Humanitarian Fleet: MSF, MOAS, SeaWatch

Large NGOs: UNHCR, Doctors of the World, ICRC, Local Red Cross Chapters, ICMP

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

PRM: Western Hemisphere Office,

US Embassy Officials in Italy and Greece (Brian Bedsworth)

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 to contact next of kin.

Provide bracelets to local red cross chapters

Get buy-in from international organizations and local authorities to put pressure on local authorities.

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.

Buy in for local forensics office and local police will be achieved through pressure from NGOs, the Council of Europe onto Ministries of the Interior that force the local authorities to act.

IOMs Missing Migrants Project

ICRC Trace the Face database

UNHCR: Syria Regional Refugee Response database

Forensics agent resources (time)

Bracelets

Sharpies

Garner adoption from refugees through informal social networks and guidemakers

Garner adoption from refugees using on-the-ground influence of the ICRC, after creating support via whitepaper publication

Use ICMP/ICRC support to achieve government buy-in from State Department and Council of Europe

Use government support to create pressure on local authorities to use data found on bodies

Deploy resources (pens, bracelets) on-the-ground through the ICRC

Use ICRC sponsorship to incentivize local authorities to use data

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

MVP Evolution

Phone numbers written on bracelets

Phone numbers written on t-shirts

InspirationThere is a missing link b/w local authorities and

migrant families/communities

[T-shirts apply to a smaller population size, preservation in water is riskier, less standardized]

Phone numbers and additional identifying information (name, DOB) on

bracelets

[Local authorities need threshold amount of data to determine family/community to be valid]

Family-verifying and identifying information on water & tamper proof NGO-sponsored bracelets

[Usage of data by local authorities influenced by influential sponsor support]

UID 2.0

MVP: UID Bracelets v2.0 Remaining Problems

Incentivize wide-scale adoption: Promise to contact family in case of death is not enough

Proof of death is what is actually required. This could be accomplished with a death certificate.

Mig

rant

sA

utho

ritie

s Fa

mili

es

Process

SMS/WA a bot service with identifying personal info, receive Case Number (CN)

Inscribe CN on bracelet

Family receives CN through number given by trip-taker

Migrant Dies

Body found and collected

Contact family members; use CN to verify validity of link

Contacted by authorities; uses CN to verify authenticity

Receives CoD and closure

Prosecutor releases CoD

Migrant Survives

Deletes information from system; removes bracelet

Required Features Alerting families of safety upon arrival using private

case number(1) Create online exchange system; or (2) use the

IFRC local chapters to exchange documents and facilitate communication using the case number

How exchange occurs depends on fidelity need of documents

Send personalized message to families using case number

Nat

iona

l S

ocie

ties

Receive important documentation from families and start CoD development

Submit needed certificates via system or national societies

Transfer documents to local authorities

Submit CoD to online system or ICRC

Transfer CoD to families

APPENDIX

Products & Services

Gain Creators

Pain Relievers

Gains

Pains

Customer Jobs

Migrant

● Fear of death● 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 (partial/complete) in the event of their death

● Families will be contacted by local authorities, based on data provided by migrants that are found as deceased ● Local authorities reach out to

family members, giving migrants the peace of mind that their families will know their fate

● Knowledge that family will be notified in case they perish during journey

● Possibility of family receiving proof of death in order to be able to move on

Samuel, Eritrean 22 year-old, who crossed the Mediterranean and is waiting on his brother and fiance join him● Sufficiently motivated to try and escape a zone of conflict or persecution, despite unclear potential for success and no assurances of safety● Often using all or most of their wealth as a last ditch effort to ensure safety, all-or-nothing approach● Incredibly practical and able to adapt to new situations quickly● Uses personal network to understand how to pursue Mediterranean crossing ● No freedom of movement under smuggler control; has no access to phones, with minimal contact with family across months ● Does not 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

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

Timeline1. Give Data

a. Spread solution through highest-degree nodes on Facebook/WhatsApp

b. Release white paper with data-backed recommendations publicly through Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab (IPL)

c. ICMP discussion to get early support

d. ICRC discussion to potentially help disseminate solution through local on-the-ground chapters with high migrant-contact

e. Release materials (i.e. pamphlets) to ICRC chapters to be, request that they recommend solution broadly

f. Distribute water-proof permanent markers through ICRC channel at points of origin (refugee camps, areas of conflict)

g. ICRC discussion to acquire sponsorship for bracelet stage

h. Distribute water-proof bracelets through ICRC channel at points of origin

i. Last iteration: Digital UI to secure and legitimize family link

2. Use Data

a. Release white paper with data-backed recommendations publicly through Stanford’s Immigration Policy Lab (IPL)

b. ICMP/ICRC support

i. ICMP discussion to get early support

ii. ICRC discussion to potentially help disseminate solution through local on-the-ground chapters with high migrant-contact

c. State Department (PRM) support

i. Public support of this initiative (sharing white-paper)

ii. National embassies to recommend solution to ICRC

iii. National embassies to recommend to foreign governments to apply pressure on local authorities

d. Acquire support from Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights

e. Request sharing recommendation during Parliamentary Assembly to European Union to incentivize national Ministries of the Interior to produce pressure on local authorities

f. Get Federal Government buy-in from Ministries of Interior and create two-way channel of communication for usage reports and data distribution channel updates

g. Use ICRC bracelet-sponsorship to incentivize usage, through established channel of communication

h. Create systematic procedure that allows death certificates to be delivered to families

i. Last iteration: Digital UI to secure and legitimize family link