2021
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.
EU: Tracking the Pact: Member states against a search and rescue "solidarity mechanism"
The vast majority of member states are opposed to a separate "solidarity mechanism" for people rescued at sea under the proposed Asylum and Migration Management Regulation. The proposal foresees this solidarity consisting of relocation or "capacity building". Some states would like to be able to offer "solidarity" in other ways - for example, Austria proposes support for externalisation measures as an alternative option to relocation of people rescued at sea.
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance: opinion on the concept of "racialisation"
"The use of the concept of “racialisation” has the potential to aid understanding of the processes underpinning racism and racial discrimination and to ensure that the voices of racialised groups are heard and taken into account, in particular in the areas of awareness-raising, education and policy making."
EU: Asylum and borders proposals: the only attack taking place is the attack on peoples’ rights
In response to the arrival of thousands of people at the EU's borders with Belarus, the European Commission has published a raft of new proposals that would weaken asylum rights and strengthen border surveillance and controls. Described as “temporary” on 1 December, proposals published this week would allow their enactment whenever the Council deems migrants are being “instrumentalised” to “attack” the European Union.
EU-USA meeting to include discussion on "the re-activated EU-US Migration Platform"
The agenda of the EU-USA Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting, taking place tomorrow, will include discussions on artificial intelligence; counter-terrorism; "relevant developments" regarding Passenger Name Record travel surveillance; and "Reporting on first meeting of the re-activated EU-US Migration Platform".
Germany: New website documents fatal police shootings
Since German reunification, 309 people have been shot dead by the country's police; there were also 148 fatal police shootings in West Germany from 1976 to 1990. A new website launched by the magazine CILIP documents these cases, seeeking to shed light on the individual cases hidden behind the interior ministry's statistics.
EU: Draft border proposals: "drones and motion sensors, as well as mobile units to prevent unauthorised border crossings"
Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulation (EU) 2016/399 as regards the response to threats to the area without controls at internal borders: "SENSITIVE UNTIL ADOPTION"
UK: "Quasi-detention" of asylum seekers must be replaced with "decent, safe acommodation," say MPs
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Immigration Detention has released a report condeming the government's use of an abandoned barracks in Kent to house asylum seekers, and demanding that plans to extend the use of such sites of "quasi-detention" be halted. The report says people seeking asylum should be "housed in decent, safe accommodation in the community that supports their well-being and recovery from trauma, facilitates their engagement with the asylum process, and allows them to build links with their community."
EU: Tracking the Pact: Presidency wants JHA Council to find "sustainable solutions" on legal proposals
A working paper circulated on 7 December by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council looks at the state of play of discussions on the legal proposals that are part of the EU's Pact on Migration and Asylum. It calls on national ministers in the Justice and Home Affairs Council - meeting tomorrow - to find ways to move forward with negotiations.
Book review: ‘EU Migration Agencies: The Operation and Cooperation of Frontex, EASO and Europol’
David Fernández-Rojo’s comparative analysis, published by Edward Elgar Publishing, explores the way in which the three agencies have grown together, and what this means for the future of migration management.
UK: Home Office publishes latest report on financial allowances for asylum-seekers
The Home Office has released its 2020 report into the pitiful living allowance paid to asylum-seekers and failed asylum-seekers, who are barred from working legally. The amounts paid, which are around half that paid to individuals on Jobseekers' Allowance (unemployment benefit), have long been condemned by charities and human rights organisations for leaving people in poverty.
UK strengthens policing cooperation with Malta
Press release published by the UK Home Office, 6 December 2021.
UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime: EU competences
More than a decade after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, the European Commission has decided to notify the United Nations of the competences of the EU under the Convention on Transnational and Organised Crime, and its protocols on migrant smuggling and human trafficking.
EU: Tracking the Pact: Council restricts rights in latest Screening Regulation text
The Council is aiming to water down rights protections in the proposed Screening Regulation, which will see most individuals who enter the EU in an irregular fashion detained at the borders with a view to their swift expulsion.
UK: Police monitoring, suspect communities, racism and policing reform – learning from the past to inform the present
Statewatch Library & Archive goes online after event in Bristol
EU: Data retention strikes back? Options for mass telecoms surveillance under discussion again
In June 2021 the European Commission sought the views of member states on ways to reintroduce the bulk retention of telecoms traffic, location and internet connection data on everyone in the EU. Responses from seven member states, published here, show a divergence of views on what data to retain and when, but a majority in favour of new EU legislation.
EU: Spin it to win it: Frontex seeks public relations support
Earlier this year we analysed the time and money Frontex invests in its public image. Media expertise has remained a high priority for Frontex, with a total of €315,000 set aside for three various media contracts this year.
EU: Artificial Intelligence Act must put human rights first
115 civil society organisations, including Statewatch, have today published a collective statement calling for EU institutions to prioritise fundamental rights in the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), which is currently under negotiation.
EU: Tracking the Pact: Presidency compromise proposals on revamped Eurodac database
The controversial expansion and extension of the Eurodac database is moving ahead, with compromise proposals circulated by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council last week. The legislation would extend Eurodac from a system concerned with supporting the implementation of the EU's asylum rules, to a more general "migration management" database, with a big emphasis on providing data for deportations.
EU: Frontex seeks expertise on "camp management and administration" and "intelligence gathering education"
Frontex is creating an external experts database and has published a list of the roles it is seeking, ranging from a "civil engineer for camp management and administration," to experts in social media surveillance and an "expert in intelligence gathering officers education".
JOINT STATEMENT of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the French Republic on migration issues and police and judicial cooperation in the Channel and the North Sea
The statement published following the meeting on Channel crossings, to which the UK was "disinvited", is entirely concerned with law enforcement and migration control measures, with no mention of humanitarian issues despite the drastic situation in Calais and other sites along the French and Belgian coasts. It is noteworthy that the statement announces the first major deployment of EU resources that aims to prevent departures from - rather than arrivals into - the EU.
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