What we do

Research, training, advocacy, and collaborative action.

Research Capacity building Advocacy and activism Regional collaboration

CDMR is a research and action organisation. We address the intersection of disinformation and migration through research, capacity building, advisory services, project implementation, and regional collaboration.

Rather than just studying problems, we design solutions to protect vulnerable people from online deception, digital recruitment scams, and false narratives that disrupt their lives.

01

Research

We look closely at how false promises spread through social media, drive unsafe labour migration, and trafficking.

We investigate the specific digital recruitment scams targeting aspirants seeking overseas employment, tracing how fraudulent brokers build a false front with fabricated testimonials, doctored photos, and fake company profiles.

We also track how climate displacement creates information vacuums that bad actors easily exploit, and we map the digital recruitment pathways that feed directly into physical smuggling routes across South Asia.

We use methodologies like ethnography of displacement and subaltern migration narratives to capture the voices of those most affected by information disorder.

02

Capacity building

We run targeted programs to improve migration information literacy for aspiring migrants so they can spot a scam before it is too late.

We integrate digital and financial literacy into pre-departure training to help workers understand trustworthy digital recruitment channels, and we work with technical training centres to embed information literacy straight into their standard modules.

We also train local journalists, civil society actors, and grassroots organisations to identify and counter online deception, making them active frontline defenders against disinformation.

For law enforcement and border guards, we run specialised training on recognising the signs of online deception and gathering digital evidence that stands up in court.

03

Advocacy and activism

We actively campaign for stronger labour protections and support grassroots activism that demands accountability from brokers and tech companies.

When displacement occurs, we advocate for the right to accurate information, treating it as a fundamental necessity for refugees and displaced communities, much like food or shelter.

We translate complex research into accessible policy briefs for government officials and international donors, because advocacy without data gets ignored — especially when we are fighting sophisticated information disorder.

Through high-level advisory services, we assist governments in drafting legislation that criminalises online deception in recruitment.

04

Regional collaboration

We collaborate extensively across South Asia to track transnational trafficking networks and cross-border information flows.

By partnering with organisations in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, we build a regional defence against online deception and share solutions that work across different cultural contexts.

We share intelligence and research findings with international partners, and run deep-dive investigations into the financial flows and digital footprints of cross-border scam networks.

Our advocacy stresses the urgent need for unified, cross-border legal frameworks to actually prosecute the people running these digital recruitment scams.

How we work with partners

Commission us

Journalism and media

We work directly with newsrooms to elevate the standard of migration reporting, giving journalists the tools to investigate complex labour trafficking cases and digital scams without accidentally amplifying false narratives.

Migration journalism training

We teach reporters how to verify digital recruitment ads and spot algorithmic amplification of scams. We design bespoke programs that turn standard journalists into experts on labour trafficking and online deception.

Migrant literacy curricula

We use critical pedagogy to design interactive courses that teach aspiring migrants how to deconstruct a digital recruitment scam, plus modules on digital inclusion for refugees and pre-departure literacy for frontline workers.

Fellowships

We are establishing fellowship programs focused on open-source intelligence for migration and tracking tech-facilitated trafficking, and we welcome collaborations with international media houses or think tanks willing to co-host fellows.

Promoting migration studies

We ground academic theories in the harsh realities of labour trafficking and displacement. We are looking for university partnerships, academic grants, and research collaborations to push this field forward.

Publications and policy briefs

Policy briefs for international organisations, investigative memos on digital recruitment fraud, and community-friendly guides on spotting online deception — data-driven storytelling that shows the human cost of disinformation.

Ongoing projects

All projects

Community media and displacement

Helping refugee populations build their own fact-checking networks to counter local rumours, working directly with camp leaders and local journalists to catch emerging rumours early.

Migrant social cohesion

Tracking how online deception fuels violence between host communities and displaced people, and building rapid-response mechanisms with local leaders to debunk false claims fast.

Looking for partnerships

We want to collaborate with donor organisations and international NGOs to scale our literacy programs in high-risk migration corridors. We also look to connect with academic institutions and journalism schools to expand our research on information disorder and build a stronger, shared evidence base.