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 an RSS feed to get instant alerts.
"Responding to a spike in migrant arrivals from neighboring Turkey, the government’s Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) has decided on seven measures to ease the pressure on the Aegean islands and curb the influx. (...)
"The EU is funding the development of a “video lie detector” to detect deception by immigrants through video recordings of their faces. "
Countries focus on increasingly effective encryption of communications
"Away from the glare of attention focused on the new Prime Minister and his plans for Brexit, an important security summit begins in London today"
"Authorities say European Union border agency Frontex has provided the Greek coast guard with a crewless blimp to help combat illegal immigration and to augment search and rescue operations in the eastern Aegean Sea."
"A European Commission spokesperson, speaking about the coast guard ship Bruno Gregoretti, said that ''following Italy's request'' for a refugee redistribution plan, the Commission ''has started contacts to support and coordinate all those member states who intend to take part in efforts of solidarity concerning the migrants on board'', who are 140. ''These contacts are still ongoing'', the spokesman added."
"We watched Reclaim the Power members blockade the depot of a coach company that transports people due to be deported on charter flights."
Working with the human rights organisation Liberty, the NUJ intervened in the judicial review of the UK's Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The case has been lost today in the High Court.
"Left-wing parties have held a rally in the Polish city of Bialystok against homophobia. An LGBT rights march in the city last week came under attack from far-right groups."
"Greek police has ordered an urgent internal investigation into an incident where a police officers kicks a foreign passenger at the Athens International Airport ‘Eleftherios Venizelos."
"The Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing arrangement between the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, owes its foundations to World War II. Significantly, cooperation started by sharing intelligence on foreign communications—through interception, collection and analysis, and associated cryptographic tools."
"They call it the Silent Talker. It is a virtual policeman designed to strengthen Europe’s borders, subjecting travelers to a lie detector test before they are allowed to pass through customs.""
"Mahdia Hosseini, 28, and Fatima Sedaghat, 16, are two young women from the Network for Children’s Rights youth centre in Kolonos, a working class district of Athens. The centre serves the needs of young refugees, migrants as well as low-income Greek people from morning until night."
"The Plan includes a commitment from both agencies to ensure consistency in the set-up and implementation of Migration Management Support Teams by setting up a working group to include Europol, as well as to provide capacity building to third countries and cooperate in the second phase of the Instrument of Pre-Accession II project ""Regional Support to Protection-Sensitive Migration Management in the Western Balkans and Turkey".
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