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 our RSS feed to get instant alerts.
"Extending the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to charities that deliver public sector services would create a "disproportionate burden" on voluntary sector organisations, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations has warned the Scottish government."
"The number of irregular border crossings detected on the European Union’s external borders last year fell to the lowest level since 2013 due to a drop in the number of people reaching European shores via the Central and Western Mediterranean routes."
"UNHCR is deeply concerned about the fire that broke out at the Initial Reception Centre in Marsa on Wednesday 8th January 2020."
"The Commons has rejected an attempt by Labour to reinstate child refugee protection rights in the Brexit bill."
"In December 2019, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) signed Operating Plans with the national asylum authorities of Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta, following needs-based discussions on the support which the Agency will provide throughout 2020."
Yesterday morning, on 3 January 2020, a group of 42 migrant people, including 26 women and two children aged three and four, reached Congress Island in the Chafarinas archipelago. That same evening, the Guardia Civil enacted the summary return of the 42 migrants. On this occasion, the Spanish government allowed the hot return of vulnerable minors and women.
"MV Lifeline captain Claus Peter Reisch is a free man, after the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned his conviction for ship registration irregularities."
Over two years after the case of Franco A (an army lieutenant who had created a false identity as a refugee, seemingly in order to commit terrorist attacks) came to light, public attention and official sensitivity to the problem of right-wing attitudes and structures in the military and police have decreased significantly.
A new book that is freely-available online claims to offer the "first interdisciplinary overview" of the causes, dynamics and consequences of migration-related deaths, with eight chapters examining issues such as the collection and use of data; the process of mourning missing migrants; and the causes of border deaths.
"The police made 24 arrests late on Monday after a violent protest by migrants at Safi Detention Centre."
"DNA that the public supply to private firms to trace their ancestry should be available to police investigating crimes, says a majority of Britons."
An Associated Press investigation has founded that traffickers and militias are receiving millions of euros from EU funds.
"Campaigners filed a complaint with the United Nations on Wednesday against Italy over a teenage migrant who was sent back to Libya in 2018 along with other migrants, where he was shot, beaten, and subjected to forced labor."
An assessment of national policies on the processing of biometric data.
The Hungarian government has funnelled state advertising spending into pro-government media outlets, and the Polish government is following suit.
An analysis published by the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies foresees an expansion of the criminal justice system under the newly-elected Conservative government.
An analysis of 189 different facial recognition algorithms by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered some major flaws.
"Over the last decade there has been a surge in the securitisation of different aspects of migration, especially in relation to mixed flows, including refugees, using irregular pathways. This essay outlines what securitised and criminalised mixed migration looks like and how security concerns are used to justify and normalise what were previously exceptional policies and practices around the world. It will also explore how these trends might change in the future."
The number of protest events in the UK in 2019 was almost double that in 2010.
The Metropolitan Police appear to have shelved their investigation into journalists whose reporting made use of the documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
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