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 EU:
Justice
and Home Affairs Council, 6-7 June 2019: Returns, Migration challenges,
data retention and 5G
Background Note (pdf), Main "B"
points agenda (for discussion, pdf), "A"
Points - legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf),
"A"
Points - Non-legislative (adopted without discussion,
pdf)
‘Violence
by design’ – the PPT delivers its verdict on the hostile
environment (IRR
News, link): "Public tribunal finds hostile environment
policies foster racism, institutional cruelty and violence by
design.
As the scandal over the treatment
of the Windrush generation and the failure to offer adequate
compensation continues, the Home Office’s immigration and
asylum policies are under scrutiny like never before. The Department
of Health and Social Care are under fire too for failing to make
public reports on the detrimental effects of immigration checks
on migrants. Now the jury of the Permanent People’s Tribunal
on Violations of the Rights of Migrants and Refugees adds to
the pressure, with a damning verdict on the impact of the government’s
hostile environment policies."
See: PPT-Report.(pdf)
EU: Press
release: EU officials in a panic over the possibility of a world
without wiretapping
5G telecoms networks
could render traditional police "lawful interception"
techniques obsolete unless EU and national governments take action,
according to internal EU documents obtained by Statewatch,
which is today publishing a new analysis explaining the issues
and calling for them to be debated in public.
EU: Ministerial
statement on "migration challenges" keeps focus on
control measures
Interior ministers and other
representatives of EU and Western Balkan states recently produced
a statement emphasising the need to maintain strict control measures
along the 'Balkan Route' and at the EU's south-eastern borders,
with no reference to the dire situation faced by many migrants
and refugees in the region.
UPDATE: Case against EU taken
to ICC on migration policy in the Mediterranean: Full-text
of submission to the court (244 pages, pdf)
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (21.5-3.6.19) including:
- Submission to ICC seeks prosecution
of EU over migrant deaths
- Hundreds occupy Paris airport
to protest against deportations
- New report on the Dublin
Regulation, the "infernal machine of the European asylum
system"
- Externalisation: Frontex
launches first formal operation outside of the EU
UK: Five
ridiculous reasons why the police label campaigners as ‘domestic
extremists’ (The Canary, link):
"Netpol has long argued
that police decisions about whom they target are subjective and
political. But they are also not entirely arbitrary. There is
a definite pattern to how units within the National Counter Terrorism
Policing Operations Centre – the latest name for the part
of UK policing responsible for gathering intelligence on protest
movements – decide on who is a ‘person of interest’
and more likely to face surveillance in the future."
EU: Council
of the EU wants data retention without cause - Germany joins
in
"On 7 June 2019, the
EU Council will vote on the further planning of an EU-wide data
retention of telecommunications data. Concrete proposals only
exist for mass surveillance without cause - Germany should not
support this. One day before, on 6 June 2019, the EU Commission
will hold a discussion with non-governmental organisations on
the subject."
UK:
'Mind
control': The secret UK government blueprints shaping post-terror
planning (Middle East Eye, link):
"The British government
has prepared for terrorist incidents by pre-planning social media
campaigns that are designed to appear to be a spontaneous public
response to attacks, Middle East Eye has learned."
EU:
Council
discuss giving Member States the right to veto releasing trilogue
discussion documents - in defiance of CJEU judgment and EU law
Article 266 of
TFEU: "The institution whose act has been declared void
or whose failure to act has been declared contrary to the Treaties
shall be required to take the necessary measures to comply with
the judgment of the court of Justice of the European Union."
Are
You Syrious (25-26.5.19,link):
Feature: Police Brutality
on Greek island of Samos
"Refugees protesting
the deplorable conditions in the Samos camp were met with tear
gas and police batons this Saturday morning. According to statements
by NGO workers and refugees, a protest began around 7:30 on Saturday
morning when a line of police officers blocked the path of refugees.(...)"
Turkey
seeks extradition of UK barrister over Twitter activity (Guardian, link):
"Ozcan Keles accused
of spreading propaganda, in latest targeting of Erdogan critics.
A British barrister who has
given evidence to parliament is facing possible extradition to
Turkey on terrorism charges over his Twitter activity. Ozcan
Keles, who is of Turkish descent and holds UK citizenship, appeared
at Westminster magistrates court on Monday accused of spreading
propaganda online. The attempt to remove him is the latest in
a series of high-profile extradition actions in the British courts
against critics or opponents of the Turkish president, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan."
Northen Ireland: No
Stone Unturned judicial review starts Tuesday in Belfast
NUJ press release: Friday 24 May
2019: Journalists, human rights defenders, press freedom campaigners
and representatives from across the political spectrum in the
UK and Ireland will be outside the Royal Courts of Justice in
Belfast on Tuesday 28 May at 9.30-10.30 to show support and solidarity
with Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey. See also: Northern
Ireland: "It’s us today, tomorrow it could be you"
- No Stone Unturned (Statewatch News)
UK: Lessons
from the past: the long history of political policing in the
UK
As the Undercover Policing Inquiry
drags on, it is worth considering the lengthy history of police
infilitration of political movements in the UK. The Inquiry is
to "inquire into and report on undercover police operations
conducted by English and Welsh police forces in England and Wales
since 1968," but the use of 'spycops' has been going on
since the passing of the 1829 Police Act, which brought London's
Metropolitan Police into existence.
The case of the police spy William
Popay is instructive, as highlighted in the book The History
and Practice of the Political Police in Britain (1977) by
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director. Following the passing
of the 1829 Police Act, as the book puts it. (...)
EU: Externalisation:
Frontex launches first formal operation outside of the EU and
deploys to Albania
The EU has taken a significant,
if geographically small, step in the externalisation of its borders.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, has launched
its first Joint Operation on the territory of a non-EU-Member
State, as it begins cooperation with Albania on the border with
Greece.
FRANCE: Les
Gilets Noirs: We are in the airport in France
“I’m here to tell you
that for them we are commodities! If they give us documents they
lose their business. So they must see that someone stood up.
We are not balls to be kicked about, we are not children. Our
struggle is not only about papers. What you have yet to see you’ll
see when you fight. There is sorrow and happiness inside. Things
need to become red and people need to rise to bring it out. The
shame is theirs, not ours. They must stop seeing black people
as blackness, but see that they have become red.”
Viewpoint: Why
have the French police become the most violent in western Europe?
(pdf) by Salvatore Palidda:
Do the police and government
not have the required knowledge and experience for the violent
repression they are enacting? Are they clumsy? There is neither
an authoritarian drift, nor one towards a police-military state,
but rather a dominant logic which excludes any negotiation. 'Democratic'
fascism and what is called democracy always coexist, with the
only likely outcome of provoking revolts which become increasingly
fierce.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (14-20.5.19) including:
- Hundreds of Europeans arrested
for solidarity with refugees
- Ill-treatment and detention:
investigation of the Lampedusa centre
- Germany: anti-torture committee
calls on authorities to ensure better treatment of foreign nationals
being removed by air
BELGIUM: Unprecedented
police action against Roma Travellers community in Belgium
(ERGO Network, link):
"A huge police action
took place in Belgium in the morning of 7 May resulting in a
massive arrest of Belgian Roma Travellers accused of trafficking
of illegally obtained vehicles. The last action of this kind
took place during the Second World War when 351 Roma Travellers
from Belgium were transported to Auschwitz Birkenau. Today we
see again a targeted action of the federal police towards the
entire Roma Travellers community in Belgium."
SWITZERLAND: No
symbolic pardon for anti-fascist protestors in Geneva
(swissinfo.ch, link):
"Parliament has refused
to clear the name of seven people found guilty of rioting nearly
90 years ago. The Swiss militia army opened fire on civilians
protesting against a meeting of fascists in the city of Geneva
in 1932. "
Privacy
International Wins Historic Victory at UK Supreme Court
(link):
"Today, after a five
year battle with the UK government, Privacy International has
won at the UK Supreme Court. The UK
Supreme Court has ruled that the Investigatory Powers
Tribunal’s (IPT) decisions are subject to judicial review
in the High Court. The Supreme Court's judgment is a major endorsement
and affirmation of the rule of law in the UK. The decision guarantees
that when the IPT gets the law wrong, its mistakes can be corrected."
Government
access to airline PNR data challenged in German courts (Papers Please!, link):
"Complaints filed today
in German courts challenge government access to and use and retention
of Passenger Name Record data (commercial airline reservation
records) as a violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by both
European Union and German law.(...)
So far as we know, these are
the first lawsuits anywhere in the world to challenge the legality
of government demands for access to PNR data or other travel
records. (...)
The lead plaintiff in the
case filed in German administrative court in Wiesbaden, Emilio
De Capitani, is a retired former director of the staff of the
LIBE (civil liberties) committee of the European Parliament.(...)
Mr. De Capitani plans to fly
from Brussels to Berlin for a meeting of GFF in November 2019.
He has purchased tickets and informed the airline that he does
not want PNR data pertaining to his travel to be made available
to government agencies
In response, the airline has
told Mr. De Capitani that regardless of his preferences, the
airline will provide government agencies in Germany "
See: Complaint
and Application for a Temporary Injunction (pdf)
Refugee crisis:
latest news from across Europe (30.4-13.5.19) including:
- Hungary's coerced removal
of Afghan families deeply shocking
- EU research funds go to project
developing swarms of AI border drones
- Report on collective expulsions
at Slovenia-Croatia border
- Common European Asylum System:
Member States oppose mandatory "border procedures"
- Masked men at Evros river
push back Turkish asylum-seekers
SCOTLAND: Political
Undercover Policing in Scotland – report (Public
Interest Law Centre, link):
"Today, the Scottish
Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (SCOPS) release their report
Political Undercover Policing – Scotland.’ There is
a clear need for the Justice Secretary in Scotland – Humza
Yousaf MSP – to urgently review the evidence presented in
this report and to order an independent and transparent public
inquiry into undercover political policing in Scotland."
PRESS
RELEASE: Mytilene, Greece: Peaceful demonstration and the human
right to freedom of assembly prevails
"Yesterday,
9 April 2019, in the Misdemeanours Court of Mytilene, the 110
on trial for resistance against authorities, rioting, and illegal
occupation of public property were found not-guilty of all charges
against them.
The charges
were brought last year, after a peaceful sit-in of approximately
180 refugees took place in a small part of Sappho Square in the
centre of Mytilene, Lesvos, between April 17- 23, 2018, in protest
against poor living conditions in Moria Camp, lack of medical
care and access to health services, imprisonment on the island
and the long delay in their asylum process. The trigger of the
mobilisation was the hospitalisation and death of an Afghan asylum
seeker with serious health problems."
EU: Frontex
gets ready to deploy to the Balkans
The European Border and Coast
Guard Agency, Frontex, is preparing to deploy officers to Albania
at the end of May for an operation at the Greek-Albanian border,
despite a drop in the number of illegal border-crossings detected
by the agency last year.
French
police watchdog to investigate 'truncheon rape' video (The Local, link):
"French investigators
are looking at several videos that appear to show police violence
during May Day demonstrations in Paris, including one showing
an officer push his truncheon inside the trousers of an arrested
man.
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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