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 Refugee crisis:
latest news from across Europe (19-25.3.18) including:
- Greece: Three years of "cruel,
inhumane and cynical" treatment of migrants and refugees
- UK: “Utter failure”
of Home Office has led to serious problems with every part of
the immigration detention system
- Spain's migration agreements
with Morocco have grave consequences for Mediterranean shipwrecks
EU: "Policing
in a Connected World": Council looks to help police deal
with "Novel Actionable Information"
A recent document produced by
the Romanian Presidency of the Council takes up the issue of
"Policing in a Connected World" and calls for the establishment
of new networks and tools so that police forces across the EU
can better make use of the "Novel Actionable Information"
generated by the "explosion in the number of digital devices
used, each generating more data, more diverse and complex types
of data, and connections between data."
UK: House of Commons Library
briefing: Brexit:
contingency planning and powers (pdf):
"This briefing looks
at emergency planning in the UK and specifically at the how emergencies
are defined, how the Government may deploy its emergency powers
to deal with them, and how this relates to no-deal planning."
Brexit
and Extending EU Membership: The Legal Issues (EU Law Analysis, link)
by Professor Steve Peers:
"This
blog post was updated following the approval of the official
decision extending EU membership. (...)
Apart from
the legal issues directly related to the extension, next week
is likely to see a number of crucial votes relating to the UK’s
imminent and future relationship with the EU. Time will tell
what indirect effect they may have on the length and circumstances
of the UK’s extended EU membership – and in particular
whether the UK government and parliament is able to agree upon
a way forward in the event that the withdrawal agreement is not
approved."
EU: Names
of national authorities that drafted "interoperability"
plans published following Statewatch complaint
The names of the authorities
that made up the EU high-level expert group on information systems
and interoperability, which was responsible for outlining the
plans that have led to the interconnection of EU policing and
migration databases, have been published by the European Commission
following a successful complaint by Statewatch.
Greece:
Three years of "cruel, inhumane and cynical" treatment
of migrants and refugees
(Doctors Wiithout Borders, link):
"Thousands of people
remain trapped in overcrowded, unsafe and unsanitary Greek island
camps three years after the implementation of the European Union-Turkey
deal, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) today, calling on European leaders to immediately evacuate
children and other vulnerable people from these locations.
The European Union (EU) and
Turkey deal, signed three years ago today, is a set of policies
aimed at preventing refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers from
crossing irregularly from Turkey to Greece. These policies now
trap about 12,000 men, women, and children in unsafe and degrading
conditions in five Greek island camps, where they have little
access to basic health services and suffer widespread misery."
Spain's
migration agreements with Morocco have grave consequences for
Mediterranean shipwrecks, warn trade union and human rights group
Andalusia, 16
March 2019 - The General Work Confederation (Confederación
General del Trabajo, CGT) and the Andalusian Association
for Human Rights (Asociación Pro-derechos Humanos de
Andalucía, APDHA) have said in a press conference
that the consequences of the recent agreements between Spain
and Morocco on migration will have serious consequences for the
human beings risking their lives in the Mediterranean.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (13-18.3.19) including:
- Italy delivers 50 off-road
vehicles to fight irregular migration in Tunisia
- 45 migrants drowned between
Morocco and Spain
- Human rights organisation
propose "fair and predictable rescue system" for the
EU
EXCLUSIVE: EU
in talks with Egypt and other states over police data-sharing
(Middle East Eye, link):
"European Union officials
have begun talks with counterparts in several Middle Eastern
countries, including Egypt and Turkey, about proposed data-sharing
deals that would allow Europol to exchange personal information
about suspects with local law enforcement authorities."
Background and documentation:
Warnings
over proposed new Europol partners in Middle East and North Africa
(Statewatch News, 14 May 2018)
EU: Security
Union: new measures agreed to introduce biometric identity cards
and a new database for convicted non-EU nationals
MEPs approved this week new measures
that will introduce mandatory fingerprinting for national identity
cards and a controversial new database to make it easier for
the authorities to find information on any previous criminal
convictions handed down against non-EU nationals. The Parliament
also agreed its position for a revamped Visa Information System
that will permit the profiling of all short-stay Schengen visa
applicants.
EU: Saving
lives in the Mediterranean: human rights organisations propose
plan for "a fair and predictable rescue system"
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have sent
an action plan for "a fair and predictable rescue system
in the Mediterranean Sea" to Carmen Daniela Dan, the internal
affairs minister of Romania, which currently holds the Presidency
of the Council of the EU.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (5-12.3.19) including:
- Council Presidency: "progress"
in migration cooperation with Libya should be repeated across
North Africa
- Criminal investigation against
Spanish human rights activist Helena Maleno closed
- Bulldozers demolish migrant
camp in Italy
UK: Policing:
use of force against children increases and disproportionately
affects ethnic minorities
The use of force by police officers
against children has increased significantly in recent years
and disproportionately affects those who are black or from other
ethnic minority groups, according to a new report by the Children's
Rights Alliance for England (CRAE).
EU: Open
letter to MEPs: oppose mandatory fingerprinting for national
identity cards
An open letter from five NGOs calls on MEPs in the European Parliament
Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) to oppose the introduction of
mandatory fingerprinting for national identity cards, as required
by the proposed Regulation on strengthening security standards
for identity cards and residence documents.
EU: Justice
and Home Affairs Council, Brussels, 7-8 March - documentation
Final press release (pdf)
Background
Note (pdf) "B"
Points agenda for discussion (pdf) "A"
points:legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf)
an "A"
Points non-legislative adopted without discussion, pdf)
EU:
Identity
cards: there is still time to oppose the EU's 'fingerprinting
Regulation'
On 11 March the
European Parliament's civil liberties committee (LIBE) will vote
on the proposed 'fingerprinting
Regulation',
which will make it mandatory for all national identity cards
in the EU to include two fingerprints and a biometric photograph.
EU: NGOs,
EU and international agencies sound the alarm over Frontex's
respect for fundamental rights
The Frontex Consultative
Forum on Fundamental Rights has expressed "serious concerns
about the effectiveness of Frontex's serious incident reporting
mechanism," saying that it should be revised and that the
border agency must "take additional measures to set up an
effective system to monitor respect for fundamental rights in
the context of its activities."
The inadequacy
of the serious incident reporting (SIR) mechanism is raised in
the latest annual
report of the Consultative Forum (pdf), which is made up of nine civil
society organisations, two EU agencies and four UN agencies and
other intergovernmental bodies. It was established in October
2012 to provide independent advice to the agency on fundamental
rights.
EU: Commission
promises transparency for all groups influencing EU policy
The European Commission has agreed
to publish documents on the work of a high-level group that shaped
the EU's military research programme and has said that any future
such groups should be subject to the same transparency rules
as other Commission-appointed expert bodies.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (26.2-4.3.19) including:
- Officials knew EU military
mission made migration more dangerous
- Global Approach to Migration
and Mobility (GAMM) update report
- Common European Asylum System
legislation - still going nowhere fast
GREECE: Athens:
suspicious death of a Nigerian man in Omonia police station
On Tuesday 26 February several
anti-racist collectives and migrant associations organised a
demonstration in downtown Athens to demand truth over the death
of Ebuka Mamashoubek, a 34-year old Nigerian father-of-two, at
the police station of Omonia.
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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