2020

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06 October 2020

UK: Grenfell files ‘lost forever’ after laptop wiped, inquiry hears

The Grenfell Inquiry, which is investigating the fire that killed 72 people in the Grenfell Tower block of flats in west London in June 2017, heard in mid-September that "emails, documents and design drawings" relating to the refurbishment of the tower with flammable cladding may have been "lost forever".

06 October 2020

European Parliament study on the EU's response to the USA's anti-abortion 'Gag Rule'

A study commissioned by the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Gender Equality committee (FEMM), looking at the EU's response to the 'Global Gag Rule', which "blocks US aid funds for organizations or groups that perform abortion services, provide information about sexual and reproductive health rights, and advocate for abortion."

06 October 2020

Twelve arrested for smuggling migrants in small boats across the English channel

A major operation involving judicial and law enforcement authorities from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, supported by Europol and Eurojust, led to the dismantling of a large network of criminals smuggling migrants in life threatening conditions across the English Channel.

06 October 2020

UK: Calls to halt bill authorising crimes by state agents

The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill would, if approved, give explicit legal permission for certain state agents to commit crimes in the course of their duties, but does not specify which crimes are covered. There is fierce opposition to the proposed measures.

06 October 2020

EU: Neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement targets Jews on Yom Kippur

Anti-semitic campaigns were launched by the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden recently, in the week leading up to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Actions were taken in almost 20 different cities including direct confrontation of Jewish worshippers, putting up anti-semitic posters and distributing flyers. The organisation was issued with a cease-and-desist order by the Finnish Supreme Court in late September, the first such order handed down in Finland since the 1970s.

05 October 2020

UK Parliament must not introduce impunity for war crimes, say UN experts

UN human rights experts have called on MPs in the Westminster parliament to reject the Overseas Operations (service personnel and Veterans) Bill, which seeks to prevent prosecutions of British armed forces personnel for serious crimes such as torture and unlawful killing.

02 October 2020

EU: European Asylum Support Office study: Border procedures for asylum applications in the EU+ countries

A study by EASO looking at how member states have implemented the 2013 Asylum Procedures Directive, which allows for the use of "border procedures" for a rapid assessment of asylum applications. Under measures recently-proposed as part of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, border procedures - and accompanying large-scale detention - would become far more widely-used.

02 October 2020

Policing the pandemic: EU governments have introduced "unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on civic space and freedoms"

A report by Greenpeace and Liberties details measures taken by a variety of EU governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The report argues that governments have taken "political advantage of the pandemic" by curbing "the right to protest, free speech, access to information and freedom of association."

02 October 2020

Greece: Police file migrant smuggling cases against 35 people, including 33 NGO workers

The Greek police have handed files to the prosecution authorities alleging the involvement of 35 foreign nationals in migrant smuggling. The files list offences such as "forming and joining a criminal organisation, espionage, violation of state secrets, as well as violations of the Immigration Code".

02 October 2020

Netherlands: Amnesty calls for a halt to algorithmic policing experiments

The Dutch police have started employing an array of "predictive policing" technologies, in projects that the police themselves describe as "living labs". Amnesty say that one such project in the city of Roemund treats the population "as 'guinea pigs' under mass surveillance and discriminates against people with Eastern European nationalities."

01 October 2020

MEPs raise concerns on EU plans for police facial recognition database

The European Commission and Council want to extend the 'Prüm Decisions' - which mandate the interlinking of national DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration databases - to include facial recognition. At a hearing last week, MEPs and experts raised serious concerns over the idea.

01 October 2020

UK: MPs vote to renew coronavirus act but brand government debate 'a disgrace'

The Coronavirus Act, which was introduced by the UK government in March and which sets out an extensive and extreme set of emergency powers, has been renewed in a vote by MPs. They were granted just 90 minutes to debate the measures.

01 October 2020

EU: Deportations to Afghanistan: member states want to simplify expulsion of "vulnerable groups"

The EU is moving toward renewal of the 'Joint Way Forward with Afghanistan', an informal agreement that facilitates the deportation of Afghans present in the EU. A secret document from July, published here, sets out the member states' demands to the Commission for the renewed agreement. It includes a call for "the notion of vulnerable groups" to be "limited", which would ease the deportation of people who may otherwise qualify for protection.

01 October 2020

UK considers imitating Australia's brutal off-shoring of asylum seekers

It has emerged in recent days that the UK government is considering the possibility of housing asylum-seekers in camps outside the country.

01 October 2020

After Moria, EU to try closed asylum camps on Greek islands

Barbed wire fences and microchipped armbands to control entry await the future residents of a forthcoming "closed camp" for refugees and migrants on the Greek island of Samos.

01 October 2020

EU: Advice of Frontex Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights still falls on deaf ears

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency’s Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights has produced its annual report for 2019, and a number of familiar concerns are again present. The Forum was set up eight years ago to provide Frontex with independent advice on fundamental rights.

01 October 2020

EU: New Council working party on blanket telecommunications surveillance

The German Presidency of the Council of the EU is planning a new working party, which will work on policy and legal initiatives aiming to reintroduce EU-wide blanket telecommunication surveillance. Previous EU legislation on telecoms data retention was struck down by the Court of Justice in 2014, but many national laws remain in place and there are ongoing efforts to introduce a new EU-wide regime.

01 October 2020

EU: Tracking the Pact: Secret documents on reception conditions and qualification for international protection

Last week the European Commission published its Pact on Migration and Asylum. While it includes some new measures, it also calls for the adoption of previous proposals that were the subject of significant disagreement between the Council and the European Parliament. Today we are publishing Council documents that have until now remained secret, including blocked provisional agreements on the rules on reception conditions and the criteria for qualification for international protection.

30 September 2020

UK: The Government must urgently consider the human rights implications of COVID-19 measures, says Joint Committee on Human Rights

The UK parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights has released a new report on the impact of the government's response to the pandemic on human rights. The report looks at the rights to life, to liberty, to privacy, to education, to a fair trial and others.

 

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