Data input for humanitarian aid workers and increasing transparency to migration incidents in the Mediterranean

Migration across the Mediterranean remains one of the most politically and humanitarianly complex issues in Europe.

Despite increased maritime operations, deaths at sea continued to rise, while allegations of human rights violations involving migrants, refugees, and humanitarian organisations became increasingly common. Researchers and advocacy groups often lacked reliable and structured data capable of supporting evidence-based analysis and public accountability.

Professor Violeta Moreno-Lax wanted to address this gap by creating an independent observatory that could systematically document incidents occurring across the Mediterranean.

The challenge was not only collecting data but ensuring the information could be trusted, analysed, and shared responsibly.

Many digital products assume users have time, resources, and stable working environments.

Humanitarian organisations operating in migration and rescue contexts rarely have any of those luxuries.

A key objective was therefore reducing barriers to participation. We needed a platform that could be used quickly, often from mobile devices, by people whose primary focus was responding to incidents rather than completing administrative tasks.

Given the project's limited initial funding, we deliberately prioritised simplicity and familiarity. We chose WordPress as the foundation for both the reporting interface and public-facing platform because many participating organisations were already familiar with it.

This significantly reduced onboarding effort and increased the likelihood of incident data being captured consistently.

One of the most important aspects of the project was developing a robust incident taxonomy.

The platform needed to capture information consistently across different organisations, countries, and incident types. To achieve this, we worked closely with NGOs and project stakeholders, including an in-person workshop in Brussels, to identify the information that would be most valuable and reliable to collect.

The resulting structure captured a wide range of data, including:

• General incident information
• Vessel details
• Incident locations
• Survivor information
• Fatality data
• NGOs involved in the incident

This framework provided a common language for documenting complex events while ensuring data remained useful for future analysis and research.

The platform served two distinct purposes.

The first was as a secure environment where trusted organisations could submit and manage incident information.

The second was as a public-facing observatory that transformed structured data into accessible information for wider audiences.

Rather than presenting incidents as raw database records, we published them as informative incident summaries, making the information easier to understand and navigate. Alongside these entries, the platform included a dedicated area for longer-form stories and investigations that explored broader trends and individual cases in greater depth.

This combination of structured data and narrative reporting helped bridge the gap between evidence collection and public understanding.

The platform was built entirely using WordPress.

This decision was driven by a desire to maximise usability, minimise development complexity, and make future maintenance manageable within the realities of a research-led project.

Custom taxonomies, content structures, and reporting workflows were developed to support incident collection, publication, and export, while additional security measures were implemented to protect sensitive information.

The result was a flexible proof-of-concept capable of demonstrating the value of a larger independent observatory.

SAROBMED created a foundation for greater transparency around migration-related incidents in the Mediterranean.

By providing NGOs with a structured way to record events and creating a public platform for sharing and analysing information, the project helped support research, advocacy, and accountability efforts across the region.

Most importantly, it demonstrated how thoughtful product design can help transform fragmented field reports into a trusted evidence base capable of informing policy, research, and public understanding.