> Amazing work you guys are doing!!

> We're a group of researchers from Goldsmiths University London,
> supporting migrants rights organizations in Europe and North Africa to
> document and bring accountability for the death of migrants at the
> EU's maritime borders.
> http://www.forensic-architecture.org/homepage/fields/investigations/sea

> We're setting up a platform - watchthemed.crowdmap.com - using all
> kinds of technology to try to document and map violations in the
> Mediterranean. We're doing this in collaboration with Boats4People, an
> important international campaign that will take place this summer
> between Italy and Tunisia, coalescing around a solidarity boat that
> will travel between the two shores. http://www.boats4people.org

> We thought of trying out drones-balloons to monitor the med, fly
> banners, launching them from from the coast or the solidarity boat.
> But for our project this summer - 1-20 July - it will be too tight for
> us to experiment with this technology on our own...

> We just wondered if someone in your community might be based in Italy
> or Tunisia and just might want to experiment in support of our
> project... or if their might be a really easy set up we could access
> and fly from the solidarity boat ourselves?

> A bit more technical info on the specific needs of the mission are
> bellow.

> Thanks for your attention on such a short notice, if not for this
> time, we'll surely be in touch in the future!

> Best, Charles

> Mission description:

> The main objective of the mission is monitoring the Central
> Mediterranean  – trying to identify migrants vessels in distress as
> well as the vessels surrounding them - which is a serious challenge
> using UAV attached cameras since we are talking about an extremely
> large surface.

> As a non-UAV specialist , I could imagine two possibilities:

> 1) flying a UAV from the solidarity boat during its travel from
> Palermo to Monastir and back to Lampedusa, extending its vision so to
> speak within a larger perimeter, exactly as military and coast guards
> use helicopters operating from their deck. The main stages of the
> boat's trajectory are:

> - Palermo - Tunis: 7-10 July

> - Tunis-Monastir (monitoring along the Tunisian coast): 11-14 July

> - Monastir-Lampedusa: 16-19 July

> 2) flying a UAV from either the Tunisian coast at key points of
> departure or from the island of Lampedusa’s coast, the point of
> arrival of many migrants’ vessels. So here the UAV would be launched
> from the coast at either end of the main migration axes:

> -       1) Tripoli (12' 32.876174, 13.187507)  – Lampedusa (35.508682,
> 12.592918)

> -       2) Jarjis (33.503681, 11.11538) – Lampedusa (35.508682,
> 12.592918)

> -       3) Sfax (34.745159, 10.7613) – Lampedusa (35.508682,
> 12.592918)

> Key to defining the best solution would be knowing the autonomy of
> your UAV: how long can it fly, over what distance?

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