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Statewatch News or: What's New (all new items) and: Refugee
crisis: Observatory
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a "Friend of Statewatch"
 European
Parliament Study: Integration
of Refugees in Greece, Hungary and Italy Comparative analysis
(pdf):
"These countries show
higher and growing rejection rates compared to the EU average
in first-instance decisions on asylum applications, ranging from
60.6 % in Italy, to 76.3 % in Greece, and more than 91.6 % in
Hungary compared to 39.2 % in the EU28 on average." [emphasis added]
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (19-22.12.17)
EU
silently accepts far-right in Austrian cabinet (euractiv, link):
"Unlike in 2000, when
the EU imposed sanctions on Austria in response to the entrance
of the FPÖ into government, this time EU leaders and institutions
silently accepted the coalition deal between the far-right force
with the conservative ÖVP agreed on Friday (15 December)."
And see: New
Austria coalition marks ‘dangerous development’: UN
rights chief (The Citizen, link):
" The UN rights chief
said Monday that the far-right tilt of Austria’s new coalition
government marked a “dangerous development”, and cautioned
against “the peddling of fear” in European politics.
EU
to agree plans to link all Justice & Home Affairs databases
into one centralised system - repeated references to migration, internal
security and terrorism
On 12 December
the European Commission put forward proposals to link all Justice
and Home Affairs databases - existing and future - into one centralised
system: Security
Union: Commission closes information gaps to better protect EU
citizens
(press release, pdf) covering: "security, border and
migration management." The plans are set out in two
proposed Regulations.
EU: Press
release: Libyan coast guard attacks rescuers after training by
EU military operation (Andrej Hunko, MdB, pdf):
"'The support for Libyan
militias in the framework of the EUNAVFOR MED military operation
is helping them in the brutal persecution of refugees. It has
nothing whatsoever to do with training in sea rescue. This is
proved by the answer received from the German Federal Foreign
Office regarding an incident on 6 November, in which the crew
of a Libyan patrol boat once again caused the death of a number
of people. Eight of the thirteen crew members had previously
been trained in the framework of EUNAVFOR MED', stated Andrej
Hunko, European policy spokesman for the Left Party parliamentary
group in the German Bundestag."
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (11-18.12.17): new EU proposals; research;
EU-Libya; Greece; European Council; other news including: Bulgarian
detention conditions inhumane
EU: Trilogue discussions
on: Regulation establishing a European Travel
Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) (pdf).
State of play as at 11 December 2017, 4-column document with
the Commission proposal, positions of the Council and European
Parliament and the draft "compromise".
New EU-Turkey "dodgy"
deal: Greece
to speed up migrant transfer after Turkey deal (euractiv, link):
"Greece will speed up
the relocation of thousands of migrants from its overcrowded
islands to the mainland before the onset of winter after reaching
a deal with Turkey, a key ally in helping to tackle Europe’s
migration crisis, government sources said yesterday (11 December).
Athens persuaded Ankara last
week to accept migrant returns, including Syrian refugees, from
the mainland and not just from the Aegean islands as previously
agreed under a 2016 EU-Turkey pact, a government source told
AFP.
The new agreement — reached
during a strained two-day visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan — aims to reduce the more than 15,000 people packed
into refugee camps on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos
and Leros, another source said."
UK: The
hidden world of “private spies” (Bureau of
Investigative Journalism, pdf link): "How Royal Bank
of Scotland, British Airways, Porsche and Caterpillar employed
private security firms which spied on protesters (...) And
see: Surveillance
firms spied on campaign groups for big companies, leak shows
(Guardian, link)
EU: Data
retention and the ePrivacy Regulation: Member State positions
revealed
A Council working paper obtained
by Statewatch prepared on the basis of responses to a
questionnaire issued by the Estonian Presidency shows the positions
of a wide number of EU Member States, and Europol, on the possibility
of including mandatory data retention rules in the ePrivacy Regulation.
ECHR: Children
detained in Bulgaria subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment
The European Court of Human Rights
has ruled that the three children of an Iraqi family detained
in Bulgaria were subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment.
The cell they were held in was run-down, dirty, had litter and
damp cardboard on the floor and "as there had been no toilet
in the cell, they had to urinate on the floor." They were
not given food or water for 24 hours and the youngest child's
milk was confiscated for 19 hours.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (7-10.12.17)
EU: European
Council 14 December, 2017:
See: European
Council (14 December 2017) – Draft conclusions (LIMITE
doc no 13862-17, pdf): Including:
"SECURITY AND DEFENCE
Further to its December 2016 and June 2017 conclusions, the European
Council reviewed progress in the field of security and defence,
and:
- welcomes the establishment
of permanent structured cooperation and stresses the importance
of quickly implementing the first batch of fifteen projects;
it calls on participating Member States to deliver on their national
implementation plans;
- calls for further work on the European Defence Fund, and in
particular the swift adoption in 2018 of the European Defence
Industrial Development Programme, in time to finance the first
capability projects in 2019;(...)
UK-EU-BREXIT: Justice and
Home Affairs: The Home Affairs Select Committee has started an
inquiry into: Home Office delivery of Brexit: policing and security
co-operation: Oral
evidence to the Committee, 5 December 2017 (pdf)
EU: Justice
and Home Affairs Council, 7-8 December 2017: Conclusions and
background documentation
Outcomes and documents
discussed at the Justice and Home Affairs Council, 7-8 December
2017: eu-LISA, ECRIS-TCN, Freezing and confiscation, PNR Directive,
CSDP operations and JHA Agencies, Asylum Package, CEAS: Common
Procedures, Reception and Qualifications, Data Retention and
EU accession to ECHR.
EU: Frontex
training materials for Libyan Coast Guard come up short on human
rights
"Respect and protection
of human rights are a negligible part of the EU’s training
to the Libyan Coast Guard, as revealed by the training materials
the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) disclosed
in response to an access to documents request. From a total of
20 documents – including a video – released, only 0,5%
of the content is dedicated to ensuring the protection of human
rights."
Police
militarisation: new online resource highlights the "shift
towards militarised policing taking place across each and every
continent"
A new online resource on police
militarisation has been launched by the organisation War Resisters
International (WRI), bringing together articles on a variety
of relvant topics and providing an interactive map that "can
be used to explore the militarisation of policing" in countries
across the globe.
EU: Fundamental
Rights Agency: "discrimination, intolerance and hatred across
the EU" show failings in law and policy
A major new report from the EU's
Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) shows that "immigrants,
descendants of immigrants, and minority ethnic groups continue
to face widespread discrimination across the EU and in all areas
of life – most often when seeking employment."
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (5-6.12.17)
UPDATED: 5 December 2017: EU: Trilogue
on ETIAS: Regulation
establishing a European Travel Information and Authorisation
System (ETIAS) and amending Regulations (EU) No 515/2014, (EU)
2016/399, (EU) 2016/794 and (EU) 2016/1624 (pdf): Four
column document giving the Commission proposal, the positions
of the Council and the European Parliament and "Compromise"
position for discussion in secret trilogue o/n 12 December 2017.
EU:
Frontex asks for greater access to databases under interoperability
proposals: Non-paper
by Frontex on its access to central EU systems for borders and
security (LIMITE doc no: 15174-17, pdf):
Frontex says it has less access
to data than national authorities. Thus it needs greater access
to check hird country nationals at external borders with "hotspot"
style roles of screening, registration, debriefing and fingerprintin
and its role in "returns"
Fatal
Journeys Volume 3 Part 2: Improving Data on Missing Migrants (IOM link):
"This report, the third
volume in the Fatal Journeys series, focuses on improving data
on migrant fatalities. It is published in two parts. Part 1 critically
examines the existing and potential sources of data on missing
migrants. Part 2 focuses on six key regions across the world,
discussing the regional data challenges and context of migrant
deaths and disappearances.
The second part of Fatal Journeys
Volume 3 makes five key recommendations that emerge from the
comparison of regions and innovative methodologies discussed
in both parts of the report."
See: Report
(link)
Statewatch Analysis: Human rights violations at
Spain’s southern border: steps towards restoring legality
(pdf)
In mid-August 2014, a group of
around 80 people attempted to enter Melilla, a Spanish enclave
in North Africa, by climbing the three razor-wire topped fences
that divide the territory from Morocco. The majority remained
balanced atop a fence for around nine hours while some held onto
their perches for up to 16 hours, “despite the suffocating
heat and the lack of food and water,” as one news report
noted at the time. But regardless of how long they held on, as
soon as they came down from the fence they were all returned
to Morocco by officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil.
Although the Article 3 claim
was dismissed by the Court [ECHR], the other complaints were
accepted, and on 3 October the Court found that the Spanish government
had indeed violated the prohibition on the collective expulsion
of aliens (Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the European Convention
on Human Rights) and the right to an effective domestic remedy
(Article 13 of the Convention).
Top reports
See: Resources
for researchers: Statewatch Analyses: 1999-ongoing
SECILE Project:
Borderline: The EU's New Border Surveillance Initiatives:
Assessing the Costs and Fundamental Rights Implications of EUROSUR
and the "Smart Borders" Proposals (pdf) A study by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation. Written by Dr. Ben Hayes and Mathias
Vermeulen: "Unable to tackle the root of the problem,
the member states are upgrading the Union’s external borders.
Such a highly parochial approach taken to a massive scale threatens
some of the EU’s fundamental values - under the pretence
that one’s own interests are at stake. Such an approach
borders on the inhumane."
How the EU works and justice and home
affairs decision-making (pdf)
Statewatch's
20th Anniversary Conference, June 2011: Statewatch
conference speeches
TNI/Statewatch:
Counter-terrorism,
'policy laundering' and the FATF - legalising surveillance, regulating
civil society
(pdf) by Ben Hayes
Statewatch publication:
Guide
to EU decision-making and justice and home affairs after the
Lisbon Treaty
(pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex,
with additional material by Tony Bunyan
Neoconopticon: the EU security-industrial
complex
(pdf) by Ben Hayes
The Shape of Things to Come (pdf) by Tony Bunyan
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