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Justice
and Home Affairs in the future UK/EU relationship: analysis of
the negotiation positions
(EU Law Analysis) by Professor Steve Peers (link):
"The EU has now adopted
its negotiation mandate for future relationship talks with the
UK (discussed
here). The UK
has now done the same. Lots of commentators have looked
in detail at the two sides approach to the future relationship
on economic issues: this blog post aims to do the same on justice
and home affairs issues (immigration, asylum, civil cooperation,
judicial and police cooperation)."
Analysis: Drones
for Frontex: unmanned migration control at Europes borders
(pdf) by Matthias Monroy:
Instead of providing sea rescue
capabilities in the Mediterranean, the EU is expanding air surveillance.
Refugees are observed with drones developed for the military.
In addition to numerous EU states, countries such as Libya could
also use the information obtained.
Council
Presidency and EU agencies want biometric databases for migrants
and refugees in the Western Balkans
The EU should help introduce
the biometric registration of migrants and refugees travelling
on the 'Balkan Route', according to the Croatian Presidency of
the Council of the EU, as part of a series of measures to tackle
the "threats arising from an increase in migratory flows
and smugglers' networks".
Analysis: Fort
Vert: Nature conservation as border regime in Calais
(pdf) by Hanna Rullman:
The construction of a nature
reserve in Calais as a way to prevent the return of migrant encampments
raises important questions over the political uses of the environment
in Europes border regime.
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (4-24.2.20) including:
- European court under fire
for backing Spain's express deportations
- Frontexs History of
Handling Abuse Evidence Dogs Balkan Expansion
- Italys Failed Migration
Fix Has Led to Chaos in Libya
Assange's
fate hangs in balance as UK court considers U.S. extradition
bid (Reuters, link):
"Almost a decade after
his WikiLeaks website enraged Washington by leaking secret U.S.
documents, a London court will begin hearings on Monday to decide
whether Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States."
See: Julian
Assange should not be extradited due to potential impact on press
freedom and concerns about ill-treatment (Council of
Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, link)
EU: EEAS
calls for changes to Operation Sophia so "chances to conduct
rescue operations are lower"
The European External Action
Service (EEAS) has called on EU governments to limit the saving
of lives at sea by Operation Sophia. A note sent to the member
states' permanent representatives in Brussels says the mission
should prioritise the enforcement of a UN arms embargo on Libya,
rather than monitoring migrant smuggling activities, and suggests
that ships could be placed "at least 100km off the Libyan
coast, where chances to conduct rescue operations are lower."
Statewatch Analysis: Spain:
Will the new 'progressive' government uphold freedom of expression?
(pdf)
Following the announcement of
the coalition government in January, the Plataforma en Defensa
de la Libertad de Información (Platform in Defence
of Freedom of Information, PDLI) published the ten top priorities
the new administration should deal with to ensure respect of
the right to freedom of expression.
ECHR-SPAIN: European
court under fire for backing Spain's express deportations
"The European court of
human rights has been accused of completely ignoring the
reality along the continents borders after it ruled
that Spain acted lawfully when it summarily deported two people
who tried to scale the border fence separating Morocco from Spanish
territory six years ago."
GREECE: PRESS
RELEASE: A criminal complaint was filed regarding the death of
a 31-year-old Iranian national at the Pre-Removal Detention Centre
of Moria
EU: Internal
Council report on the implementation of the EU Internal Security
Strategy
"Delegations will find
attached the joint paper of the outgoing Finnish Presidency and
the Croatian Presidency on the implementation of the renewed
EU Internal Security Strategy."
European
complicity in CIA torture in 'black sites' (Amnesty, link):
"... this renewed spotlight on Guantánamo
is also an opportunity to hold to account the USs European
friends which hosted key black sites, helped to disappear
detainees, and facilitated torture and ill-treatment. The fact
that they watch the proceedings at Guantánamo from afar
unscathed and unaccountable is also an outrage.""
Italys
Failed Migration Fix Has Led to Chaos in Libya (Foreign Policy, link):
"ROMEOver three
days in May 2017, the Italian secret servicemasquerading
as a humanitarian nongovernmental organizationsummoned
to Rome two dozen delegates from the southern edge of the Sahara
desert. The pretext was to promote a peace deal for their war-torn
region; the real goal was to bring them on board with an Italian
plan to curb migration."
Refugee
crisis: latest news from across Europe (21.1-3.2.20) including:
- EU aid increasingly taken
hostage by migration politics
- New yearly report on torture
of asylum seekers by Croatian authorities at EU external borders
- Death of a ten-year-old child
in Roissy: another victim of European migration policies?
- Italy guilty of refoulements
in 2009 handover of Eritrean shipwreck survivors to Libya
EU: New
Council "strategic guidelines" frame the next five
years of EU justice and home affairs policy
The Council of the EU is moving
towards the adoption of its next five-year set of strategic guidelines
for justice and home affairs policies. Priorities listed in a
draft document include enhancing the powers of justice and home
affairs agencies, such as eu-Lisa and Europol; preventing future
migration "crisis situations"; and cooperating more
closely with non-EU states to control migration.
Viewpoint: The
shadowy business of fear-mongers (pdf) by Ana González-Páramo:
Every morning, Spanish radio
listeners are bombarded with advertisements for home security
alarms, which spread fear of thieves, foreigners and squatters.
Interestingly, such sermons mirror the mainstream narrative and
messages from certain political parties.
GREECE: Solidarity
Statement: Freedom for Hamza Haddi and Mohamed Haddar: The European
Union must stop the arbitrary incarceration of refugees and migrants
(pdf)
"The accusations against
Hamza and Mohamed are clearly unfounded. They are refugees, not
smugglers."
Top reports
See: Resources
for researchers: Statewatch Analyses: 1999-ongoing
SECILE Project:
Borderline: The EU's New Border Surveillance Initiatives:
Assessing the Costs and Fundamental Rights Implications of EUROSUR
and the "Smart Borders" Proposals (pdf) A study by the
Heinrich Böll Foundation. Written by Dr. Ben Hayes and Mathias
Vermeulen: "Unable to tackle the root of the problem,
the member states are upgrading the Unions external borders.
Such a highly parochial approach taken to a massive scale threatens
some of the EUs fundamental values - under the pretence
that ones own interests are at stake. Such an approach
borders on the inhumane."
How the EU works and justice and home
affairs decision-making (pdf)
Statewatch's
20th Anniversary Conference, June 2011: Statewatch
conference speeches
TNI/Statewatch:
Counter-terrorism,
'policy laundering' and the FATF - legalising surveillance, regulating
civil society
(pdf) by Ben Hayes
Statewatch publication:
Guide
to EU decision-making and justice and home affairs after the
Lisbon Treaty
(pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex,
with additional material by Tony Bunyan
Neoconopticon: the EU security-industrial
complex
(pdf) by Ben Hayes
The Shape of Things to Come (pdf) by Tony Bunyan
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