News

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.

03 October 2019

UK-BREXIT: Parliament to be prorogued next Tuesday

"The government has confirmed it plans to prorogue Parliament next Tuesday and hold a Queen's Speech on 14 October."

03 October 2019

Can Schinas put EU values back into migration brief?

"The migration issue continues to dominate the EU corridors of power and its agenda."

02 October 2019

Greece must act to end dangerous overcrowding in island reception centres, EU support crucial

"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is today calling on Greece to urgently move thousands of asylum-seekers out of dangerously overcrowded reception centres on the Greek Aegean islands."

02 October 2019

EU: 'Moria is hell': asylum seekers protest conditions at Greek camp

"Hundreds of asylum seekers protested conditions at Greece’s biggest migrant camp on Lesbos on Tuesday after a woman was killed in a fire there, marching towards the island’s capital before being halted by police."

02 October 2019

European Commission: report on use of the European Arrest Warrant in 2017

In 2017, European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) were most commonly used for offences falling within the categories of theft and criminal damage (2,649 EAws); fraud and corruption (1,538); and drugs (1,535), although not all member states provided the European Commission with the requested information.

01 October 2019

Hungary Denies Claim It Backs Linking EU Budget to Rule-of-Law

"Hungary rejected a claim by the European Union’s rotating presidency that all member states have agreed to tie the bloc’s funding to rule-of-law conditions."

01 October 2019

Protecting the rights of migrant children

A letter from civil society organisations to Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

01 October 2019

USA: Do DNA Databases Make Would-Be Criminals Think Twice?

"...what if instead of just bringing more perpetrators to justice, the widespread perception of law enforcement’s genetic omniscience was also preventing crimes from happening in the first place? Or to put it slightly differently, what if the fear of being done in by DNA is actually holding potential offenders back from criminal behavior? This would seem like an extremely difficult effect to measure, but some researchers are using sophisticated analysis of crime data to argue that it is real, and that it results in lower recidivism rates."

01 October 2019

EU: MEPs concerned with peace should worry about the new ‘Defence Industry & Space’ unit

"On 2 October, the European Parliament committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) will hear the French Commissioner-designate Sylvie Goulard, whose Internal Market portfolio will include a new Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space..."

01 October 2019

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 'Large increase in anti-Bosnian, anti-Muslim bigotry': Report

"Islamophobic rhetoric at the political level, which at its peak in the 1990s Bosnian War played a significant role in the massacre of thousands of Bosniak Muslims, is once again being used by Serbian and Croatian politicians - including those of Bosnian background - with dangerous aims, according to a new report."

01 October 2019

Central Mediterranean Regional Analysis

"Over the past three months, the period of time covered by this regional analysis of developments in the central Mediterranean, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 39 distress situations in that region, involving over 2,337 people. Never before has the Alarm Phone been alerted to so many boats crossing this area of the Mediterranean Sea in such short period of time. 14 of these boats were intercepted and returned to Libya. 17 boats were rescued and brought to a European harbour, including eight by NGO vessels. The fate of six boats remains unknown. Two boats capsized, and about 140 people lost their lives."

01 October 2019

UK: The Immigration Industrial Complex: A global perspective on ‘unfree labour’ in immigration detention

"Labour within immigration detention is not a widely acknowledged phenomenon, yet thousands of hours of work are being undertaken in detention centres throughout the world. In 2014, for example, over 495,000 hours-worth of work were undertaken by detainees in immigration detention centres in the UK alone. In 2015, this rose to over 923,000 hours-worth of work, and in 2016 over 537,000 hours-worth of work were undertaken between January and July 2016 (FOI request)."

30 September 2019

Spanish-Moroccan borders upgraded with new cameras, facial recognition and a barbed wire 'swap'

The Spanish government is seeking a 50% reduction in illegal immigration and to achieve this goal is deploying new surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology at its borders with Morocco in Ceuta and Melilla. The Spanish government also plans to remove the barbed wire fences at those borders - but the Moroccan government is constructing its own.

 

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