• Home /
• About /
• In the press /
• The truth about the shadowy ‘Migration 5’

The truth about the shadowy ‘Migration 5’

17 June 2024

Radio New Zealand, 17 June 2024.

"The extent and secrecy of the network concerns Chris Jones, director of UK civil liberties organisation Statewatch. Jones says people may feel their unblemished travel and police records leave them unaffected, but that’s not the case.  

“Biometric data is counted as a sensitive category of personal data, it merits high levels of protection. There needs to be great justification as to when organisations can collect it, and when they can share it,” Jones says. 

“We're not just going to be talking about terrorists and criminals here, there's all sorts of people will be caught up in that - people who need protection, people who want to see their families, people who just want to visit the country and for some reason they are deemed suspicious. 

“They are systems that won't do what's intended and don’t really comply with the rule of law as we understand it, because they turn everyone into a suspect.” 

People may never find out their visa rejection was based on a data error by a country they once visited, he says. Mistakes, over-reach of states and breaches through tech failures or hacking are all worrying possibilities and loss of privacy a very real consequence. 

“It doesn't matter if you have never done anything wrong, and you supposedly have nothing to fear. The only thing I ever say to that argument is: ‘Why do you have curtains on your house?’  

“It's a question of what should your own government be allowed to know about you? And then, what should a foreign government be allowed to know about you? And even if those things are justified, why is all this not publicly clear and known and out in the open and vetted by your elected representatives?”"

Full story here.