Launched in 1999 and updated regularly, Statewatch News includes our own reporting and writing as well as articles, announcements, documents and analyses from elsewhere on civil liberties, EU policies and state practices. You can receive updates in your inbox by signing up to our mailing list, or use an RSS feed to get instant alerts.
Samos Voice published letter by Professor Chris Jones
"The referral to the court of appeal of 39 cases of potential wrongful prosecution of subpostmasters, for theft, fraud and false accounting, is the biggest group of probable miscarriages of justice in UK history, according to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). This group will get even bigger, with 22 more cases under review and only delayed because they were more recently taken up by the CCRC, and more potential applicants have contacted the CCRC in the days since the historic announcement was made. “This is completely unprecedented,” Helen Pitcher, chairman at the CCRC, told Computer Weekly. She said the previous biggest group referral comprised 10 cases."
"The Home Secretary has today (Monday 30 March) announced that Ken McCallum has been appointed as Director General of MI5. He will become MI5's eighteenth Director General and succeeds Sir Andrew Parker, who has been Director General since 2013 and retires in April. Ken McCallum is an MI5 officer with almost 25 years of experience across the full spectrum of the organisation's national security and intelligence work. His first ten years was focussed on Northern Ireland-related terrorism, with his work contributing to the peace process remaining a career highlight. Senior operational roles in countering Islamist extremist terrorism followed, and a period leading on cyber security, where he expanded MI5 engagement with the private sector."
"The Greek hotspots in which exiles are crammed without any protection of their rights or from the pandemic are an example of the precarization of their trajectories by the security policies of States. Migreurop denounces the violence inflicted onto exiles in the name of the “war against the virus”, their unequal treatment with regard to the pandemic, and demands the immediate closure of all spaces of migrant detention in order to ensure their right to be protected."
Gerald Knaus, the man widely considered responsible for coming up with the EU-Turkey Deal that has trapped thousands of people in squalid conditions on Greek islands, is now calling for those camps to be evacuated.
Citing COVID-19, Authorities Arbitrarily Detain New Arrivals
A paper from the Centre for European Policy Studies looks at whether the right to privacy will be violated in the name of addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
Portugal is granting temporary rights to people with pending residency applications, including asylum-seekers, residence until at least 1 July.
A report from the Greek-Turkish border.
An article by the director of the GLOBSEC think-tank.
More news on the new powers granting the Hungarian government the ability to rule by decree.
Professor Steve Peers sets out what the Northern Ireland Protocol will actually mean regarding checks at the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
At the end of February, the Turkish government announced it would allow refugees to travel onwards to Greece and Bulgaria, in the hope of extracting from the EU further financial support as well as backing for its military operations in Syria. It has now taken up its role as Europe’s border guard again, but the manufactured crisis induced by the Turkish decision and the EU response highlight the long-term failings of the EU’s asylum and migration model.
A mobile library for refugees in Greece is raising funds for a new van.
The Austrian NGO None of Your Business looks at data protection law and location tracking apps being proposed in Europe.
Over 100 MEPs from four political groups in the European Parliament have called on the European Commission to take action so that "fundamental rights and the right to asylum" are upheld in Greece. Their calls have been echoed by dozens of migration policy experts working on EU-funded projects.
Viktor Orbán's 'Enabling Act' has been passed into law by the Hungarian parliament.
A report in the Financial Times highlights the brutal treatment meted out to people on the move in the Balkans.
A new campaign has been launched calling for the release of three young men who prevented a boat that had rescued them from returning them to Libya. They are being charged with terrorism offences in Malta.
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.
Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.