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 Refugee crisis:
latest news from across Europe (3-9.12.19) including:
- Report on illegal pushbacks
at the Greek-Turkish border
- Ministers call for renewed
migrant smuggling crackdown on "Eastern Mediterranean"
route
- Croatia Is Abusing Migrants
While the EU Turns a Blind Eye
All
EU security and defence missions to adopt access to documents
policies - but enforcement will be voluntary
All the missions and operations
launched under the EU's common and security and defence policy
(CSDP) have been ordered by the European External Action Service
(EEAS) to adopt policies on public access to documents by February
2020, but their enforcement will be voluntary and lie beyond
the reach of the Court of Justice of the EU.
EU: Ministers
call for renewed migrant smuggling crackdown on "Eastern
Mediterranean" route
The EU should put a "stronger
focus" on "the fight against human smuggling"
along the Eastern Mediterranean route, according to the interior
ministers of almost two dozen central and eastern European states,
who have called for joint investigations and enhanced cooperation
with Turkey and Western Balkan countries.
Report
on illegal pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish border
These pushbacks are very problematic
on a lot of different levels: asylum seekers are denied their
human right to apply for asylum, as well as the possibility to
receive protection in Europe.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (26.11-2.12.19) including:
- Med: Mounting Death Toll
while NGOs Struggle to Keep up with Rescues
- “How the hostile environment
creates sites without rights": Evidence presented to the
London Hearing of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal
- Questions surround Greece's
stricter course on refugees
European
leaders: Stop punishing asylum seekers on the Greek islands (MSF, link):
"Dear European leaders
Dr Christos Christou, MSF
International President “The situation is comparable with
what we see in war zones in other parts of the world. It is outrageous
to see these conditions in Europe and to know that they are the
result of deliberate political choices.” (...)
Stop this deliberate collective
punishment of people in search of safety in Europe. Urgently
evacuate the most vulnerable people from these centres to safe
accommodation in other European states. End the policy of containment."
General
Court Rules on Frontex: Less Transparency at EU Borders (Frag Den Staat, link):
"The first lawsuit against
Frontex by a civil society organisation was not successful: the
European Court in Luxembourg, following a joint lawsuit by freedom
of information activists Luisa Izuzquiza and Arne Semsrott, decided
that the European Border Police do not have to disclose any information
about their ships in connection with operations at the EU's external
borders.
See: Judgment
(pdf)
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (19-25.11.19) including:
- New Detention Centres Planned
on Greek Islands Despite Ruling Against Island Conditions
- EU countries warned of 'lost
generation' of young refugees
- Deportations: Council Presidency
proposes systematic monitoring of readmission cooperation and
sanctions for non-compliance
EU: 'Roadmap'
for implementing new Frontex Regulation: full steam ahead
A 'roadmap' sets out the actions
needed for "rapid and full operationalisation of the European
Border and Coast Guard (EBCG) 2.0 Regulation," described
as a "top priority for the EU."
EU-Morocco: EU
aid and development funding has provided €215 million for
border security in Morocco since 2001
Since 2001, almost
€215 million has been provided to Morocco by the EU to finance
border security projects. Human rights abuses against migrants
and refugees committed by Moroccan authorities call into question
whether financial support from the EU to Moroccan border security
should continue.
See Statewatch
Analysis: Aid,
border security and EU-Morocco cooperation on migration control (pdf)
EU-USA talks
on the exchange of e-evidence reveals major differences - USA-UK deal muddies the water
The Commission has produced
a report on the 2nd round of talks on the EU-USA exchange of
electronic evidence held in Washington on 6 November 2019. It
shows that many differences need to be sorted out and reveals
that a UK-USA bilateral agreement in the US legislative pipeline
takes contradictory line to that of the Commission. See:
Report of the Commission services on
the second round of negotiations in view of an agreement between
the European Union and the United States of America on cross-border
access to electronic evidence for judicial cooperation in criminal
matters, 6 November 2019
(Council Restricted doc no:13713-19, pdf)
Greece
migrant crisis: 'Horrible' camps to shut amid influx (BBC News, link):
"Overcrowded, open camps
that have become home to 33,000 asylum seekers on five Aegean
islands are to be shut down and replaced with closed centres.
Four or five new sites will
be set up to house 1,000 to 5,000 people. (...)
The proposed sites are being
described as "closed pre-departure centres""
Comment: It appears that the
current free movement of refugees on the islands after registration
will end and they will be locked in the new detention centres
until their return to Turkey has breen agreed..
Deportations:
Council Presidency proposes systematic monitoring of readmission
cooperation and sanctions for non-compliance
The Finnish Council Presidency wants
EU member states to consider new methods for encouraging 'third
countries' to accept their own nationals deported from the EU,
according to a note
(pdf) sent to the High-Level Working Group on Asylum and Migration
and the Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum
(SCIFA).
NOTE from: Presidency: Policies and tools to enhance readmission
cooperation - Presidency discussion paper (LIMITE
document 13190/19, 8 November 2019, pdf)
Sea
rescue NGOs : a pull factor of irregular migration? (European University Institute, link):
"We find no relationship
between the presence of NGOs at sea and the number of migrants
leaving Libyan shores. Although more data and further research
are needed, the results of our analysis call into question the
claim that non-governmental SAR operations are a pull factor
of irregular migration across the Mediterranean sea."
EU: New
report: Data Protection, Immigration Enforcement and Fundamental
Rights: What the EU's Regulations on Interoperability Mean for
People with Irregular Status
A new report
published by Statewatch and the Platform for International
Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) explains
the EU's new rules on interoperable information systems and databases
and examines the potential implications for people in an irregular
migration situation.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (29.10-18.11.19) including:
- New report: What the EU's
Regulations on Interoperability Mean for People with Irregular
Status
- Refugee chaperones are accessories
to traffickers, German court rules
- New Greek deportation law
approved; Italy renews cooperation with Libya
- Croatia: violence at the
border no barrier to Schengen accession
- Exposed: Malta’s secret
migrant deal with Libya
EU: Croatia:
violence at the border no barrier to Schengen accession
The European Commission’s decision
to give the green light to Croatia’s membership of the Schengen
area has been condemned by human rights groups who say that it
ignores “illegal and violent push-backs of migrants”
at Croatia’s borders that violate EU and international law.
EU-USA:
Meeting
on 6 November 2019 discussed agreement on exchange of electronic
evidence
- including Life
imprisonment without review, death penalty and freedom of speech
The European Commission produced: Note ahead of the second negotiating
round for an EU-US Agreement on cross-border access to electronic
evidence, 6 November 2019
(Restricted document 13369-19, pdf):
The key issues discussed included the "categories of data"
to be covered including "both content and non-content data"
and the "types of offences and criminal proceedings, including
both pre-trial and trial state"
EU PNR: The
Belgian Constitutional Court refers ten preliminary questions
to the Court of Justice concerning the obligation to transfer
passenger information (pdf)
"The Belgian Constitutional
Court refers ten preliminary questions to the Court of Justice
of the European Union in light of the review of the law requiring
transportation providers and travel operators to communicate
passenger information.
The Court inquires whether
the system of the PNR Directive, transposed by the contested
law, is compatible with the right to respect for private life
and the protection of personal data. In addition, the Court asks
several questions regarding the interpretation of the Directive.
Lastly, the Court refers a question to the Court of Justice on
the applicability of the API Directive, also transposed in Belgian
law, that requires air carriers to communicate certain passenger
data to combat illegal immigration and to improve border control.
With respect to flights within the European Union, the question
arises as to its compatibility with the free movement of persons."
UK: Joint Committee on Human
Rights: Right
to privacy “may exist on paper” – but not in online
“Wild West”, says JCHR
(Press release, pdf):
"- Individuals are giving
away “vast amounts of data” and are expected to be
risk-aware when using web based services
“The consent model is broken”: Committee calls for
robust regulation to govern how personal data is used and stringent
enforcement of the rules
- “Deeply troubling” evidence that data being used
to discriminate in job and housing ads online
The Committee today reports serious grounds for concern about
the nature of the “consent” people provide when giving
over an extraordinary range of information about themselves,
to be used for commercial gain by private companies."
See: Report
(pdf)
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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