Core Team

Klaas van Dijken

Director

Klaas van Dijken is co-founder and director of Lighthouse Reports. As investigative journalist and editor, his works focusses on human rights violations at Europe’s borders and the involvement of governments and state-funded agencies. Before Lighthouse, Klaas worked as a conflict reporter and investigative journalist in Eastern and Central Africa and Afghanistan. His work has been published worldwide in print, online and tv.

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Investigations

The Kutum massacre

The Kutum massacre

Previously unpublished execution videos link leaders of the Sudanese RSF militia to ethnic massacres in the Western region of Darfur.
Desert Dumps

Desert Dumps

Europe supports, finances and is directly involved in clandestine operations in North African countries to dump tens of thousands of Black people in the desert or remote areas each year to prevent them from coming to the EU.
Sink the Boats

Sink the Boats

The UK government is paying France to ‘Stop the Boats’. Now first-time footage reveals French police have violently intercepted dinghies sailing for Britain, risking the lives of people on board
Smoke and Lies

Smoke and Lies

Visual investigation reconstructs the unseen events which saw 40 people suffocate to death in a migrant detention centre fire in Ciudad Juárez, disproving official account
Frontex and the pirate ship

Frontex and the pirate ship

The EU’s border agency Frontex and the Maltese government are systematically sharing coordinates of refugee boats trying to escape Libya with a vessel operated by a militia linked to Russia, human trafficking, war crimes and smuggling.
Smuggler, Warlord, EU ally

Smuggler, Warlord, EU ally

The lead smugglers behind the Pylos shipwreck are closely linked to General Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord who EU leaders are partnering with to curb migration
The Crotone Cover Up

The Crotone Cover Up

Italy lied about its role in a shipwreck that killed 94 people – including 35 children – and the EU border agency Frontex helped cover it up
Ethnic Profiling

Ethnic Profiling

Whistleblower reveals Netherlands’ use of secret and potentially illegal algorithm to score visa applicants
France’s forgotten Afghan spies

France’s forgotten Afghan spies

Left Behind: A French-led intelligence cell in Afghanistan was kept secret for years – and now France has left its agents behind
Detained below deck

Detained below deck

Asylum seekers held in secret cells on ferries between Greece and Italy
Recycling Lies

Recycling Lies

Plastics labyrinth allows traders to illegally ship Europe’s waste
Invisible Workers

Invisible Workers

Modern slavery conditions for migrant workers on EU's farms at height of pandemic
Masked men

Masked men

Clandestine state forces behind most violent pushbacks, according to new evidence
Cast Adrift

Cast Adrift

Greek coast guard intercepts asylum seekers, abandons them on life rafts
Returns to Harm

Returns to Harm

Europe costly, inhumane and malfunctioning deportation machine
Shadow Population

Shadow Population

Why Europe has stopped counting its undocumented population
Belgian Arms

Belgian Arms

Belgium sells air power to Saudis and ‘cop killer’ guns Mexico cartels
The Instagarchs

The Instagarchs

How the war in Ukraine and international sanctions upended the gilded world of Russia’s oligarch class – as seen through the prism of their social media