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"Statewatch is an indispensable resource for documents on civil rights and migration in the EU. We have used information gathered from Statewatch for our lawsuit against Frontex and couldn't work as efficiently without the great Statewatch database. If Statewatch didn't exist, it would have to be invented."

Arne Semsrott, Director, FragDenStaat (German freedom of information platform)

Statewatch

Kunstmatige intelligentie maakt de Europese grenzen nog killer. ‘Europa verschuilt zich achter technologie’

3 weeks 2 days ago

"Dit soort systemen worden vaak verdedigd met het argument dat menselijke vooroordelen hiermee worden uitgebannen. Maar technologie ís niet objectief en onbevooroordeeld, zegt Romain Lanneau. Hij is onderzoeker bij Statewatch, een organisatie die toezicht houdt op het behoud van burgerlijke vrijheden in Europa.

‘Het grootste probleem’, zegt Lanneau, ‘is dat deze technologieën getest worden met bestaande data van migranten, die is opgeslagen door grenswachten in de afgelopen tien jaar.’ De risicoproelen die een algoritme opstelt, zullen daardoor allesbehalve neutraal zijn.

Experts achten de kans daarom groot dat het gebruik van AI aan de grens zal uitlopen op etnisch proleren: bepaalde etnische of religieuze groepen zullen door het systeem sneller worden aangemerkt als leugenaars of als een risico."

Full story here.

Statewatch

Irak ottaa nyt palautettavat kansalaisensa vastaan, Somalia kieltäytyy yhä yhteistyöstä

1 month ago

"Helsingin Sanomat reported in an article published on Sunday 26 February on the media attention the returns from Finland have received on Iraqi satellite channels and social media. Rekan Khalil, who resisted deportation and was returned to Iraq, filed a criminal complaint about the use of force by Finnish police. The detention centre is described in the Tiktok video and in TV interviews as a "prison".

(...)

The Iraq news has also quoted a report by the British NGO Statewatch that Iraq had agreed to accept all its citizens last March, and that the EU was still seeking an informal agreement to step up returns.

Helsingin Sanomat asked Iraq's migration ministry about the matter. Soran Omar, a member of the Iraqi parliament's committee on migration and refugees, wrote in a message to Helsingin Sanomat only that "we have discussed this issue with the foreign minister and told him that it is unacceptable for Iraq to accept forced returns"."

Machine translation, full story (in Finnish) here. The Statewatch report cited in the article is available here.

Statewatch

Contribute to Statewatch

1 month 4 weeks ago

Statewatch is a small, non-profit organisation and our work is greatly enhanced by our network of volunteer contributors across Europe. If you would like to contribute to Statewatch, please read the following and contact office [at] statewatch.org. If you require it, you can find our public PGP key here.

We accept the following types of contributions:

  • news articles – 200-1,500 words;
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Translations of material into English are always welcome, provided that permission is sought from the original author/publisher (where necessary).

News articles can be based on: first-hand reporting; relevant reports published by NGOs, government bodies or other organisations; write-ups of academic work; official documentation; official speeches; book reviews. You can find examples of news articles we have published here, here, here, here and here. They should report the facts and other peoples' opinions, but not the author's own opinions.

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We frequently publish official documentation, both from the EU institutions and national governments. Documents themselves are very welcome contributions, as are summaries of their content. If you have material you would like to send to us securely, you can find our contact details here.

We provide hundreds of links every year to material published by newspapers, NGOs, official bodies and other organisations. You are welcome to send us links to relevant material; at the same time, summaries of the content of those links would be much appreciated, in particular summary translations into English.

Bear in mind that we are a small organisation with limited time and resources. If you wish to submit a longer article for consideration (1,500 words or more), please send us an abstract/summary first.

Articles should be submitted to office [at] statewatch.org with minimal formatting. If you are affiliated to an institution (e.g. university, NGO) that you wish to be published alongside your name, please inform us. If you require it, you can find our public PGP key here.

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Statewatch

USA krever fri adgang til å søke i norske registre

2 months 2 weeks ago

"Ved å søke i norske og andre lands registre, vil USA kunne undersøke folk langt grundigere. Dermed kan de også nekte flere uønskede tilreisende innreise.

I et dokument skriver Department of Homeland Security at myndighetene vil kunne søke i relevante straffesaks-, terrorist- og identitetsregistre.
Ved treff skal de kunne hente ut store mengder personlige data om reisende.

Som motytelse tilbyr USA blant annet søk i sikkerhetsdepartementets egne databaser. De inneholder 1,1 milliarder registreringer om 270 millioner  personer, ifølge et faktaark laget av amerikanske myndigheter. Det er offentliggjort av menneskerettighetsorganisasjonen Statewatch."

Full story here (paywall), citing this report.

Statewatch

Police to be able to run face recognition searches on 50m driving licence holders

2 months 2 weeks ago

"Chris Jones, the director at Statewatch, a civil liberties NGO, called on MPs to reject the controversial change.

He said: “There has been no public announcement of or consultation over this plan, which will put anyone in the country with a driving licence into a permanent police lineup. Opening up civil databases to mass police searches turns everyone, a priori, into a suspect. More surveillance and snooping powers will not make people safer.”"

Full story here.

Statewatch

New Brexit fingerprint checks for UK travellers in Europe set to start in 2024

3 months 1 week ago

"The non-profit group Statewatch, which monitors civil liberties in the EU, predicts that technology firms could make millions of euros from operating the ESS, while travellers could face hefty delays.

“The Austrian government has estimated that waiting times, often already lengthy, will double when the system comes into use,” the group’s director Chris Jones told i.

He added: “Holidaymakers, workers, students and people visiting their families are unlikely to experience the convenience and efficiency promised by proponents of the system.

“Instead, it seems the main beneficiaries will be police and border agencies hungry for more sensitive personal data, and the IT companies that stand to make hundreds of millions of euros from the contracts for setting up and operating the system.”"

Full story here.

Statewatch

NGOs: EU asylum overhaul will create 'cruel system'

3 months 1 week ago

"The aim is to reach political agreement, possibly later on Monday, amid intense political pressure in the hopes of wrapping up the fine print before the European elections next June.

But a Spanish EU presidency paper, leaked earlier this month by civil liberties group Statewatch, reveals that the parliament has made major concessions that will likely see more restrictive asylum rules."

Full story here.

Statewatch
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2 hours 27 minutes ago
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