2025
Italy: The end of the systematic denial of data protection rights?
Italy has been systematically denying people access to data about them stored in Europe’s largest policing and immigration database, statistics obtained by Statewatch show. Much of the data in question concerns entry bans and deportations orders. Knowing what information is stored is vital for peoples’ livelihoods and even their survival. EU institutions have known for years that mechanisms for the protection of individual rights were lacking. Now, victory in a long legal struggle may force the Italian state to comply with its obligations.
Violence at a distance: Frontex’s increasing role outside the EU
The EU tries to keep ‘unwanted’ people out by outsourcing border control to non-EU states. Frontex, the EU’s border agency, play a key role in a “web of violent deterrence” that is deeply-rooted in Europe’s colonial past. Every year, the agency publishes a report on its work in and with non-EU states. The latest edition demonstrates how its role has expanded, whilst glossing over or ignoring human rights violations.
Serial shipwrecks on the Libyan route: the price of deterrence
In just one week in November, more than 600 people in unseaworthy vessels were intercepted on the high seas and taken back to Libyan shores, where conditions remain appalling. This is the result of cooperation between Italy, Frontex and Libyan bodies that flies in the face of international law.
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