An Island in Despair. Documenting the Situation for Refugees and Displaced People in Lesvos, Greece
In contrast to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) who are responsible for demographic data collection in many of the state- run camps across Europe, our research data are independently collected, with the specific aim of encouraging policy development rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The research presented in this report was carried out in Lesvos from 18 to 22 June 2018. Over this period, Refugee Rights Europe’s researchers conducted 311 surveys in Arabic, Dari/Farsi, English, French, Kurmanji Kurdish and Pashto.
The format was semi-structured and captured the lived experiences of individuals ranging from 13 to 60 years of age. Each member of the research team had field experience of working with refugees and displaced people or similar groups.
The researchers were recruited from Refugee Rights Europe’s pool of researchers and included native speakers of all key languages.
The study was guided by ethical checklists that were underpinned by data protection policies, child safeguarding policies and a robust risk register, to ensure the security and dignity of all participants.
Researchers were expected to observe strict adherence to all of Refugee Rights Europe’s data protection policies, referral policies, child safeguarding and principles of full and informed consent.