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The Interactive Atlas is part of the research project HUMANcITY, implemented by the University of the Aegean with the support of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.)

The Interactive Atlas visualizes and presents a mapping of the “humanitarian landscape” of Lesvos during the period 2019-2022. In the Atlas, we categorize and mark the geographical positions of humanitarian presence on the island, including camps, spaces of activities and services as well as other spaces of interest (for more information on the categories of entries see the User Guide). Moreover, we also mark other data in relation to the refugee-migration phenomenon on the island, such as, data on the humanitarian actors that have been active on the island during the research period, data on population of asylum seekers, on deaths at sea, and on spaces of protest, contestation and confrontation.

       

DATA COLLECTION

The data presented in the Interactive Atlas were collected using a mixed methodology that combined an online survey with online research to the webpages and social media pages of the organizations of interest and of the authorities, but also fieldwork that conducted in Lesvos during different times between 2020 and 2022.

See below a list of the main webpages and databases that was used:

- Greek Ministry of Migration & Asylum

- UNHCR operation data portal

- Humanitarian information service, provided by the the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

- Migration Data Portal, developed by IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC)

- Missing Migrants Project of International Organization of Migration

The main research period of the HUMANcITY project was from Summer 2019 to Summer 2022. However in some cases entries appear in earlier years, back to 2015 and the beginning of the “migration and refugee crisis” in Greece and Europe. This is because the Atlas is a project that aspires to cover a wider period through the cooperation with the Observatory of the Refugee and Migration Crisis in the Aegean. Thus, the Altas is an ongoing research project, and new entries will be added even after the HUMANcITY program is completed.

TIMELINES

Humanitarian Facilities

Humanitarian Actors

Places of Interest

Incidents

Arrivals

The above timelines correspond with the five categories of entries in the Atlas.
By moving the two buttons (left& right) of each timeline the user can see the entires in the map for the selected categories and for the selected years.

USER GUIDE

On the right side of the page, select (or deselect) categories of entries to see the entries for the full period presented in the map (2015-2022).

Below the categories of entries, select ‘Lesvos’ for a view of the whole of the island and ‘Mytilene’ for a focused view on the capital Mytilene.

On the left side of the page, select the slider that corresponds with each category to see entries for selected time periods.

Categories of Entries: Five different categories of entries are presented in the map.

1. The category Humanitarian Facilities includes camps, guest houses and other formal or informal facilities in which asylum seekers are hosted on the island, that were mapped through fieldwork and long term experience of the research team in Lesvos.

2. The category Arrivals includes the official numbers of sea arrivals to Lesvos for each month of the period 2018-2021. Each ring of the circles corresponds with a month of the selected period. The data were retrieved from the official announcements on the sea arrivals by the Greek Ministry of migration & Asylum and by UNHCR.

3. The category Incidents includes protests, confrontations, shipwrecks and other incidents reported on the press or by human rights monitoring organizations, as well as fieldwork on the island.

4. The category Humanitarian Actors includes the governmental and inter-govermental organizations as well as the non-govermental or non-profit organizations or solidarity groups that have been active during the research period (2019-2022). The complete list of the mapped Actors can be accessed by the table.

5. The category Places of Interest includes specific places or areas that have been important in forming the humanitarian landscape of Lesvos.