Migration and Human Rights Journalism with May Bulman from Lighthouse Reports

In this episode of The Intelligence Spotlight, we sit down with a journalist whose work has often forced governments to answer for their actions. May Bulman, now Investigations Editor at Lighthouse Reports, has made a name for herself reporting on migration, asylum, and the quiet crises ignored by much of the mainstream press.

From exposing abuses in UK housing and welfare systems to documenting forced deportations along the Balkan route, Bulman has consistently focused her lens on the lives of those left behind. Her journalism doesn’t just inform — it agitates, it pressures, and, in many cases, it changes.

But how did it begin?

From student paper to front pages

May’s journey into journalism started at university — writing for the student paper while studying English and French. “It wasn’t until I spent time reporting during a stint in Senegal that I realised this is what I wanted to do,” she recalls. That early fieldwork led to a journalism master’s degree, which she pursued thanks to bursaries.

Her big break came at The Independent, where she first began doing weekend shifts. The work was fast-paced and relentless — “quantity over quality” — but it gave her an inroad.

One story would change the course of her career. “It was about exploitation inside the Calais Jungle,” she says. A chance Facebook post on a volunteer group hinted at sexual abuse taking place inside the camp. Screenshots, deleted comments, and informal testimonies led her to dig deeper — eventually resulting in a front-page investigation exposing how some ‘volunteers’ were preying on refugees. “That was the first moment I realised how powerful this work could be.”

Truth, trauma, and testimony

From there, Bulman specialised in social affairs, reporting for The Independent for seven years. Over time, she became a leading voice on asylum, homelessness, trafficking, and systemic abuse in the UK. But it was her post-2021 work with Lighthouse Reports that pushed her into deeper waters.

Their Left Behind series, which exposed how Afghan allies were abandoned following the fall of Kabul, involved extensive work verifying abuses in a country that had become near-impossible to report from directly.

“We couldn’t go to Afghanistan. The Taliban denied access. So we worked with remote sources, families, survivors, and a network of testimonies,” she says. “We combined personal accounts with visual evidence — sometimes CCTV footage, sometimes injury photos, sometimes images of bodies. And then we verified everything with OSINT methods — using sun shadows, geolocation, building analysis.”

Her colleague Bashar, an OSINT specialist, played a crucial role in validating locations and events. “Without open-source tools, these stories would’ve remained claims. We were able to provide facts.”

The Turkey investigation — and Europe’s uncomfortable complicity

Bulman’s recent investigation, Turkey’s EU-funded deportation machine, uncovered how Syrian and Afghan refugees were being mistreated and forcibly deported from Turkish detention centres — many of which were funded by the European Union.

“We started in early spring and published in October,” she says. “At one point, we had over 15 journalists working on it — from Istanbul to Kabul, from OSINT investigators to legal researchers.”

The investigation revealed evidence of abuse, coercion, and systematic deception. Refugees were being forced to sign “voluntary” return forms under duress — sometimes physically beaten into signing. The team also uncovered EU logos on buses and vehicles involved in these operations, challenging the claim that Europe’s hands were clean.

“We backed it all with visuals — mapping removal centres, geolocating footage, and collecting testimonies of those who’d been returned. Some had fled to avoid persecution, only to be sent back into the very danger they’d escaped.”

Her core principle? Get to the truth

For Bulman, truth is not a slogan — it’s the anchor of her work. “Journalists don’t always have to take a side. But we must get to the facts. And that means listening carefully, verifying claims, and respecting the people whose stories we tell.”

She’s acutely aware that much of her work deals with trauma. “Treat people with humanity,” she says. “Not just because it’s the right thing to do — but because trust leads to better reporting. Many of my sources come back to me because they know I’ve handled their stories with care.”

Advice to aspiring journalists

Her advice is clear and honest: “You’ll have to persevere. It’s a hard industry. You might start by writing stories that don’t matter to you. But if you care enough, and you keep pushing, you’ll find your place.”

She also urges young journalists to find a niche — a topic or theme they can specialise in. “Migration became mine, but it could be anything. Just find something you care about and dive deep.”

And finally, learn the tools. “Google Earth, geolocation, advanced search techniques — even how to use keywords effectively. It sounds basic, but it’s powerful.”

The role of OSINT in modern journalism

When asked about tools she’d recommend, Bulman doesn’t hesitate: “Google Earth for location work. Learn how to geolocate. And social media monitoring — it’s its own skillset. There’s so much you can find if you know what you’re looking for.”

She reflects on how, in her early years, she didn’t even know what OSINT was — despite unknowingly using it. “Now I actively think about how to involve OSINT in every investigation,” she says. “It’s not optional anymore. It’s essential.”