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 Italy's
asylum rejection rate at record high (euobserver, link);
"The rate of rejection
of would-be asylum seekers has reached a record high in Italy,
according to figures released by the Institute
for International Political Studies (ISPI). It says some
24,800 asylum applications in Italy were denied in the last four
months. It noted rejected asylum applications went from 17,500
from October 2017 to January 2018, to almost 25,000 between October
2018 and January 2019."
EU: EP
civil liberties committee against proposal to give Frontex powers
to assist non-EU states with deportations
The European Parliament's civil
liberties committee (LIBE) has agreed its position for negotiations
with the Council on the new Frontex Regulation, and amongst other
things it hopes to deny the border agency the possibility of
assisting non-EU states with deportations.
World
Health Organisation report: "No public health without refugee
and migrant health"
"The
Report on the Health of Refugees and Migrants in the WHO European
Region is the first WHO report of its kind, creating an evidence
base with the aim of supporting evidence-informed policy-making
to meet the health needs of refugees and migrants and the health
needs of the host populations."
EU: Migration
and asylum: European Court of Auditors to examine "hotspots"
in Greece and Italy
The European Court of Auditors
(ECA) is to conduct an audit of the "hotspots" set
up in Greece and Italy, which "will assess whether support
for Greece and Italy has achieved its objectives, and whether
the asylum, relocation and return procedures have been effective
and swift."
EU: New
criminal records database for non-EU nationals is "disproportionate
and discriminatory".
A new EU database
for holding information on convicted non-EU nationals is "disproportionate
and discriminatory", says an analysis (pdf) published today
by Statewatch.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (5-11.2.19) including:
- How EU Countries Undermine
the Right to Liberty by Expanding the Use of Detention of Asylum
Seekers upon Entry
- Libya: Parallel forces under
interior ministry dominating decision making in Tripoli
- Spain: APDHA, EntreFronteras
and the Andalusia Union of Journalists call for an end to the
information blackout at the southern border
Government
permission to travel: “Authority to Carry” (Papers, Please!):
"A white
paper on the use of PNR and API data (airline reservations),
published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) in January 2019, lays out more starkly than ever
before the goal of governments around the world: a permission-based
system of government control and prior restraint in which a common
carrier must receive “Authority to Carry” with respect
to each passenger, before allowing them to board any flight."
EU: "Interoperable"databases
or rather the creation of a centralised Justice and Home Affairs
database: First two measures agreed between the Council and the
European Parliament - full text of Regulations
• Police cooperation, asylum and migration: Regulation
on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information
systems (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration)
and amending [Regulation (EU) 2018/XX [the Eurodac Regulation],]
Regulation (EU) 2018/XX [the Regulation on SIS in the field of
law enforcement], Regulation (EU) 2018/XX [the ECRIS-TCN Regulation]
and Regulation (EU) 2018/XX [the eu-LISA Regulation]
(326 pages, pdf): Four column document with the Commission proposal,
the Council position, the European Parliament position and the
a agreed "compromise" text.
• Borders and visa: Regulation
on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information
systems (borders and visa) and amending Council Decision 2004/512/EC,
Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, Council Decision 2008/633/JHA, Regulation
(EU) 2016/399, Regulation (EU) 2017/2226, Regulation (EU) 2018/XX
[the ETIAS Regulation], Regulation (EU) 2018/XX [the Regulation
on SIS in the field of border checks] and Regulation (EU) 2018/XX
[the eu-LISA Regulation]xx (437 pages, pdf). Four column
document with the Commission proposal, the Council position,
the European Parliament position and the a agreed "compromise"
text.
See: Statewatch
Observatory: Creation of a centralised Justice & Home Affairs
database is "a point of no return"
Fusion
Centres in Six European Countries: Emergence, Roles and Challenges (pdf):
"In the six European
countries that this report covers, namely Belgium, Germany, Italy,
The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK), there are
different contexts that lead to the establishment of their respective
fusion centres. The current contexts in which they function are
also different, particularly concerning their mandate and their
organisational structures. The provided selection of fusion centres
and their descriptions are based on the responses to the call
for contributions issued by ICCT among members of EENeT, focusing
on exactly these points."
UK: Liberty
calls for ban on 'predictive policing'
"Police forces in the
UK should abandon their tests of computer programs to predict
where crimes are likely to happen and whether individuals are
likely to re-offend, human rights pressure group Liberty says
today. According to the group, at least 14 forces in the UK are
testing or in the process of developing ‘predictive policing’
systems based on machine-learning algorithms."
SPAIN: APDHA,
EntreFronteras and the Andalusia Union of Journalists call for
an end to the information blackout at the southern border
- They consider it a priority
to guarantee compliance with the right to life, that rescues
respect the legal requirements and that the right to information
is preserved
- They denounce the fact that the rescued and deceased persons
have remained completely invisible
LIBYA: Minister:
Parallel forces under interior ministry dominating decision making
in Tripoli (Libya Observer, link):
"The Interior Minister
of the Presidential Council, Fathi Bashagha, said there are armed
groups and forces that are by name operating under the ministry,
but in reality they are executing their own agendas away from
the government's orders.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (29.1-4.2.19) including:
- Summit of the Southern European
Union Countries – Nicosia Declaration
- An “Informal” Turn
in the European Union’s Migrant Returns Policy towards Sub-Saharan
Africa
- An average of six deaths
every day in the sea in 2018
France's
top court upholds police use of controversial crowd control weapon (RFI, link):
"France’s highest
court, the Council of State has rejected calls to suspend the
use of controversial non-lethal munitions that have been linked
to several serious injuries at Yellow Vest protests, a day ahead
of Act 12 of nationwide demonstrations."
EU: New
report examines widespread deployment of automated decision-making
systems in policing, employment, social security and more
A new report by Algorithm
Watch says that automated decision-making systems of one
kind or another are in use in "almost all aspects of daily
life" across the EU.
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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