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.
In 2010, a police spy was uncovered in the UK environmental movement. His exposure set off a chain of events that led the government to announce an official Undercover Policing Inquiry. Now, a new archive gathers all the documents released by that inquiry since public hearings began in 2020. It is designed to help activists continue the fight against political policing and state secrecy, and to push for transparency and accountability.
EU member states want significantly more money allocated to migration control in the bloc’s next long-term budget, set to run from 2028 to 2034. This is according to a document produced by the Polish EU Council Presidency and circulated on 12 June. Spending on external migration control from current budgets is already above expectations.
London, 30 June 2025 – The civil liberties organisation Statewatch has published a report that reveals how police and criminal legal system authorities across Europe are using data-based, algorithmic and AI systems to ‘predict’ where crimes may occur and profile people as criminals, despite the EU’s apparent ban on so-called ‘predictive policing’ systems in the Artificial Intelligence Act.
Electronic tagging has long been a controversial means of monitoring and restricting the movement of people outside of prisons. The British government is expanding the use of electronic tagging against people with criminal convictions, asylum seekers and migrants. A report from 1989, held in the Statewatch Library & Archive, shows remarkably fierce opposition to the practice from what might seem an unlikely source: the Prison Officers’ Association.
A Dutch political activist last week filed a legal complaint with EU police agency Europol, seeking compensation for the unlawful processing and handling of his personal data. The move is likely to lead to litigation at the European Court of Justice to determine Europol’s liability. This case could help clarify the rights of individuals seeking redress against Europol’s growing surveillance and data-gathering efforts.
Israel's "combination of legal reforms, unchecked intelligence access, and the operational deployment of EU-linked data in repressive practices further undermines the credibility of Israel’s adequacy status," warns a letter to the European Commission signed by 17 organisations, including Statewatch.
A declaration coordinated by the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy ties together the crises of border violence and refugee deaths at sea, extractivism and fossil fuel dependence, militarism, Big Tech and corporate power, the genocide in Palestine, and environmental destruction in the Mediterranean. It makes an urgent call for a transformative social, environmental and political alternative.
A new report looks at the way the Algerian government has increased its involvement in border control initiatives promoted by European governments, after decades of reluctance to do so.
EU lawmakers should drop the proposed deportation Regulation, says an open letter signed by 12 members of the #ProtectNotSurveil coalition, including Statewatch. The letter warns that the proposal will violate peoples' rights through an expansion of the EU's digital surveillance and control infrastructure.
The latest Polish Council Presidency draft of the proposed Regulation "on measures against transport operators that facilitate or engage in trafficking in persons or smuggling of migrants". If a company were deemed to be engaged in those activities, the EU would be able to suspend port visitation rights, road or rail transportation licences, or to limit the scope of existing licences.
The Council of the EU's proposed priorities for law enforcement access to data, covering: measures to be implemented immediately; priorities for the European Commission's upcoming "roadmap to ensure lawful and effective access to data"; and ideas for ways to "foster a constructive public discourse."
The EU’s new deportation law will expand a database that has long led to abuses and rights violations, particularly in relation to the right to data protection.
A vessel attempting to carry medicine, food, and infant supplies to Gaza is currently sailing across the Mediterranean. A previous attempt at such a voyage was ended following an attack by armed drones. A letter so far signed by 220 organisations and 4,700 individuals calls on European and other governments to take action to ensure the protection of the vessel, and an end to the siege and bombing of Gaza: "The fate of millions of people in Gaza and the humanitarians trying to support them depends on our collective ability to respond with strength and determination."
Racist violence in North Africa: EU governments know exactly what is happening, and plan to continue support /// EU and UK consider joint external migration control projects /// Africa Frontex Intelligence Community: documents released /// EU officials talk "asylum policy and homeland security" at European Police Congress
It is no secret that the EU is seeking greater cooperation from non-EU states in its migration control agenda. Less is known, however, about precisely how that cooperation is organised and encouraged. A document produced last year and released in response to an access to documents request from Statewatch provides some further details on the topic, pointing to avenues for advocacy, research and investigation.
Changes to UK law will undermine data protection standards, posing risks to individual rights and leading to calls for the EU to review the "adequacy decisions" that deem the UK a safe destination for transfers of personal data. A letter from seven organisations, including Statewatch, calls for the EU to urgently reassess the UK's adequacy status, "to protect fundamental rights and uphold its credibility as both the guardian of the EU’s legal order and a global leader in digital rule-making." However, the EU is also currently seeking to downgrade data protection standards, for the same purpose: economic deregulation.
In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in hate speech and persistent incitement against migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Algeria. Racist rhetoric is widely circulated in some media outlets and on social media, underpinning a general climate of marginalisation and discrimination. A joint letter signed by 20 organisations from Europe and Africa calls on the Algerian authorities to halt arbitrary mass expulsions of migrants, and to end policies that criminalise civil society organisations standing in solidarity with them.
The European Commission should reinforce and support that enable private communication, says a joint letter signed by almost 90 organisations, companies and technical experts. The Commission's recent Internal Security Strategy says there is a need to "enable law enforcement authorities to access encrypted data in a lawful manner," alongside a host of other proposals on policing and security. Statewatch is a signatory of the letter.
A statement signed by 12 organisations, including Statewatch, calls on the Turkish government to release political prisoners as part of a push to stop prison overcrowding. Political prisoners are currently exempt from the scheme due to anti-terrorism laws passed in 2020 and 2023. Those affected include lawyers, journalists, politicians, artists, judges and prosecutors, and human rights defenders.
More than 120 organisations, including Statewatch, are calling on the EU to keep the General Data Protection Regulation in place, as the European Commission announces plans to remove certain provisions of the law in the name of removing 'red tape' for businesses. The signatories express concern that the proposed changes "could instead roll back key accountability safeguards and with them, the accountability principle itself."
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