Mawda Shawri was two years old when she was killed by Belgian police. She was shot in the head during a car chase involving police in May 2018. The incident made headlines and a trial followed. But her family never really got justice.
“Police violence is very rarely punished," said Selma Benkhelifa, the Brussels lawyer who represented Shawri’s family. “And when it is, the sentences are often very low."
Shawri is one of 391 migrants who died on the border between the UK, France and Belgium between 1 January 1999 and 1 January 2024, and whose lives and deaths are recounted in this series.
