This has been extremely busy year for both our core team and our contributors. Together, we published over 50 news articles and 20 analyses, and supported 25 joint statements.
We also spoke at more than a dozen events and hosted our first workshops on data protection in immigration and asylum, which welcomed 30 attendees.
Highlights from 2024
Numbers aside, this work has seen us working in collaboration to protect civil liberties and human rights across various issues, within Europe and beyond.
Exposing border externalisation
In April we published the first edition of our bulletin Outsourcing Borders: Monitoring EU externalisation policy, with Migration-Control.info. Through this bi-monthly publication, we are fighting the secrecy that often shrouds externalisation policy and its harmful effects.
Each bulletin provides thematic and regional updates, and two articles examining particular issues in depth. We also publish troves of official documents that would not otherwise be public: so far, we have made more than 100 public. Your support can help us expand this vital work.
Investigating EU agencies
We published several pieces on Frontex which continue to demonstrate their dangerour role in EU border policy. This included:
- new data on Frontex’s growing role in deportations;
- new details of Frontex’s cooperation with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard–published with Swedish television programme Mission Investigate;
- revelations on Frontex’s Management Board’s awareness of systemic rights violations in Greece; and
- details of how Frontex has been forced to improve transparency by the European Ombudsman–published in cooperation with The New Arab.
With plans afoot to expand the agency’s role and budget even further, these kinds of investigations remain crucial to efforts to hold Frontex accountable and prevent further harm.
Similarly, the EU is also seeking to expand the powers of police agency Europol. We have tracked those proposals since they were published in late 2023, exposing the flaws in the proposal, secret negotiations between EU member states, and the concerns of the EU’s data protection authority.
Tracking the Pact on Migration and Asylum
After the EU’s new migration and asylum legislation was approved last year, we switched our efforts to monitoring its implementation. Through this project, we:
- revealed EU member states’ plans to direct that process;
- analysed the legislation requiring fundamental rights monitoring at borders;
- exposed plans for accelerated deportation procedures;
- provided a jargon-free translation of the new Commission’s migration policy priorities; and
- explained how the new laws turn border externalisation into a legal obligation.
Working with others, in Europe and beyond
Throughout the year we have produced work in cooperation with other activists, researchers and media outlets.
- We supported the organisation Arrested Lawyers by publishing a report on the Turkish state’s prosecutions of people using an encrypted messaging app.
- We worked with Informationsstelle Militarisierung to detail the millions of euros the EU has sent Israeli companies and institutions for drone technology.
- We cooperated with The New Arab to reveal how the EU’s police training agency has been seeking closer links with the EU Arab Interior Ministers’ Council on terrorism cases.
- And we worked with Italian outlet Altreconomia to explain how the Italian government has abolished the public’s right to know any details about its border policies.
This is just a snippet of what we have done this year. With your support, we can do much more.
How you can support
You can support our commitment to human rights, civil liberties, and democratic standards in Europe by becoming a Friend of Statewatchand making a monthly contribution.
Your contribution will help us continue doing critical reporting work in the year to come.
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