"Un rapport récent de l’organisation britannique de défense des libertés civiles, Statewatch, révèle que la police fédérale allemande envisage d’examiner les comptes de réseaux sociaux des individus sollicitant des visas Schengen."
Full story here.
Other coverage in:
"From the EU’s controversial new entry rules (which will soon require non-citizens to register their fingerprints before entering the Schengen area) to the growing use of similar biometric data in airports and at the border, data harvesting is only becoming a bigger part of the travel experience, whether we like it or not. But why is it happening?
“The main reason has been the unprecedented level of state cooperation around security issues,” says Chris Jones, director of the civil liberties watchdog Statewatch. He highlights the use of numerous UN resolutions – typically backed by the US, Russia, and China – calling for the use of biometric data to combat terrorism.
Jones points to the particular example of PNR (Passenger Name Record) data, by which airlines are often mandated to record the names, passport numbers and payment details of their passengers on behalf of government authorities. The practice became compulsory for US-bound flights in the wake of 9/11 but has since expanded in reach and scope.
“The mass gathering of this data makes it easier for authorities to use algorithms to do what’s called rules-based targeting,” he says. In theory, the system is meant to help identify potential security threats. In practice, it can mean passengers being held up or grounded just because their data happens to match someone else’s."
Full article here.
"“On the face of it, there’s some superficial improvement,” Chris Jones, the executive director of Statewatch, an EU civil-liberties NGO, tells The Parliament.
While Frontex has started releasing more information about its activities, Jones says that it still mainly reflects what the agency wants the public to see."
Full article here.
We are looking for Trustees who meet the following criteria:
Please note that there are legal restrictions on who may serve as a Trustee. The board is currently co-chaired by two of the Trustees (Vicky Canning and Lilana Keith).
In particular, we are looking for people with expertise and experience in the following areas:
Our vision
An open Europe of democracy, civil liberties, personal and political rights, free movement, freedom of information, equality and diversity.
Our mission
To monitor, analyse and expose state activity that threatens civil liberties, human rights and democratic standards in order to inform and enable a culture of diversity, debate and dissent.
Our objectives
At the beginning of 2022 we adopted a new five-year strategic plan based around three overarching themes:
You can read a summary of the strategic plan here.
Applicants are asked to look here and at our website generally to familiarise yourself with our work and to send us:
Please send these to Rahmatolla Tavakkoli at admin [at] statewatch.org
Please note that some applications will be reviewed by the whole Board of Trustees and Director of Statewatch. All information provided will be treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
The deadline for applications is 18:00 GMT on Monday 13 January.
Please note that we will only be able to respond to applicants who are invited for interview. We will contact interviewees by Friday 31 January.
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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)
"Mathieu Ménard a suivi et documenté depuis 2017 les transformations apportées à ce lieu: «J’ai observé et photographié le nettoyage, le désamiantage, la destruction et la renaturation. En à peine dix-huit mois, le site naturel était sorti de terre et inauguré en juin2018, en toute discrétion. Naïf les premiers mois, j’ai très vite été conscient de l’ironie que représentait cette situation. Car selon une analyse menée par l’ONG Statewatch, la renaturation ne possède que l’illusion du naturel. Cette décision a en effet été prise dans le but d’empêcher l’accès au site et des réinstallations, ce qui confirme le cynisme du retour à la nature de ce lieu que j’ai ressenti, perçu, observé et photographié.»"
Full article here (paywall), and the analysis that it mentions here.
"Deutschland, Frankreich und die Niederlande setzen sich im EU-Ministerrat dafür ein, die Telekommunikationsüberwachung von Autofahrern und weiteren Insassen grenzüberschreitend zu vereinfachen. Auch das Verfolgen von Fahrzeugen mit GPS-Trackern in anderen Mitgliedsstaaten soll der Polizei erleichtert werden. Das Trio drängt dazu auf eine Reform der gesetzlichen Grundlagen für die Europäische Ermittlungsanordnung (EEA). Dies geht aus einem inoffiziellem, vertraulichen Papier vom September hervor, das das Generalsekretariat des Rats Anfang November an die zuständigen Expertengruppen des Ministergremiums geschickt und die britische Bürgerrechtsorganisation Statewatch jetzt veröffentlicht hat."
To contact individual staff members, replace [at] with @.
Chris Jones (Executive Director)
Chris has been working for Statewatch since 2010 and in September 2020 was appointed as Executive Director. He specialises in issues relating to policing, migration, privacy and data protection and security technologies.
Romain Lanneau (Consultant Researcher)
Romain Lanneau is a legal researcher based in Amsterdam, publishing on the topics of migration, asylum, and the use of new technologies for public policies. In 2021, he was selected as a Bucerius Start Up PhD Fellow for a one-year project on the theme of 'Beyond Borders'. He is a recent graduate of a research LLM on International Migration and Refugee Law from the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. In the past, he worked for several NGOs, including the largest research network on migration and refugee law in Europe, the Odysseus Academic Network.
Yasha Maccanico (Researcher)
Yasha has worked for Statewatch since 1998, providing news coverage, analysis and translations to link EU policies to events on the ground in the justice and home affairs field in several member states (UK, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal). He has extensive public speaking experience in civil society and academic contexts and in 2019 completed a PhD at the University of Bristol in Policy Studies on the topic of 'European Immigration Policies as a Problem: State Power and Authoritarianism'.
McKensie Marie (Head of Communications)
McKensie joined Statewatch in early 2024 to lead its communications efforts, shaping and implementing our communications strategy. She manages external outreach and oversees all aspects of our communication work. With experience as a communications specialist, designer, copywriter, and researcher, McKensie has worked with NGOs and charities across Europe and North America. She holds a BA in Culture & Political Studies from The Evergreen State College, USA, and an MA in Cultural Encounters & Communication Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark. In addition to her communications role, McKensie conducts academic research on international development, political communication, and cultural identity.
Rahmat Tavakkoli (Finance & Administration Worker)
Rahmat joined Statewatch in September 2021 to take care of our financial and administrative procedures, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and contribute to the smooth running of the office and the organization.
Tony Bunyan (Founder, Director, 1991-2020; Director Emeritus, 2020-2024)
Tony passed away in September 2024. You can find our tribute to his life and work here.
Trustees
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche
Marie-Laure Basilien-Gainche is Professor of Law at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, honorarium member of the Institut Universitaire de France, and fellow of the Institut Convergence Migrations. Her researches focus on the exigencies of the rule of law and their limitations in cases of exceptions: the situations of serious crises which allow the concentration of powers and restriction of rights (e.g. the use of the state of emergency), and the areas of legal confinement which are conducive to abuses of power and rights infringements (e.g. camps and centres where migrants and refugees are detained). She is member of the editorial board of various reviews and is involved in numerous academics networks regarding human rights law. You can find more information about her activities and publications on her personal webpage.
Laure Baudrihaye-Gérard
Laure is a lawyer based in Brussels, where she works on EU and Belgian criminal justice policy. She qualified as a solicitor in London, specialised in EU law and worked in private practice in both London and Brussels before studying criminology. After participating in several academic research projects, Laure joined Fair Trials, a criminal justice watchdog, in 2018. As Legal Director for Europe, she led on EU advocacy, strategic litigation in European courts and the coordination of a European-wide network of criminal defence lawyers, civil society and academic organisations. She has also been working as a prison monitor since 2019 in a large pre-trial detention prison in Brussels, and since 2020 heads up the appeals committee that adjudicates on complaints from detained people against the prison administration.
Jonathan Bloch
Jonathan Bloch studied law at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Economics. He was politically involved in South Africa in the worker and student movement and remains active in human rights circles in the UK. From 2002 until 2014 he chaired the Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust, one of the largest scholarship awarding organisations in South Africa. He was a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey 2002-14. He has co-authored several books on intelligence. He owns and runs a worldwide financial information business across four continents.
Victoria Canning
Victoria Canning is senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Bristol. She has spent over a decade working on the rights of women seeking asylum, specifically on support for survivors of sexual violence and torture with NGOs and migrant rights organisations. She recently completed an ESRC Research Leaders Fellowship focussing on harmful practice in asylum systems in Britain, Denmark and Sweden, and the gendered implications thereof. Vicky has experience researching in immigration detention in Denmark and Sweden, as well as Denmark’s main deportation centre. She is currently embarking on a study of torture case file datasets with the Danish Institute Against Torture which aims to create a basis from which to better identify and thus respond to sexual torture and sexualised torturous violence with refugee survivors of torture more broadly.
Nadine Finch
Nadine was a member of the Statewatch contributors group for a number of years and also previously a trustee. She was a human rights barrister between 1992 and 2015 and an Upper Tribunal Judge from 2015 to 2020. She is now an Honorary Senior Policy Fellow at the University of Bristol and an Associate at Child Circle, a children's rights NGO based in Brussels.
Lilana Keith
Lilana Keith is PICUM’s Senior Advocacy Officer on Labour Rights and Labour migration. PICUM - the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, is a network of more than 165 organisations in 35 countries, mostly in Europe, working for human rights and social justice for undocumented migrants.
Lilana joined PICUM in 2011 and has had various roles, including leading PICUM’s work to advance the rights and inclusion of undocumented children, young people and families for many years. She has been involved in work to advance migrants’ rights since 2009, including through community development and funding. She has an academic background in international and European migration law and policy and anthropology.
"Egypt and Tunisia have shown little or no interest in striking deals with Brussels to drive down migrant crossings from North Africa to Europe, according to leaked EU documents.
The papers revealed Brussels has made scant progress in deepening co-operation with the two countries on border control and returns.
(...)
The leaked documents, first reported by the EU Observer website and obtained by Statewatch, a pro-transparency NGO, were prepared by Hungary, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU."
Fulls story here. The document referred to is available here.
"Yasha Maccanico på organisationen Statewatch pratar snabbt och mycket. En av de första sakerna han pekar ut är att det är mycket svårt att få insyn: allt som handlar om migration anses idag vara så viktigt ur ett säkerhetsperspektiv att mycket måste hållas hemligt.
– Det här smittar också av sig på medlemsstaterna, säger han.
Det gör också att det går att komma undan med sådant som man borde stå till svars för, fortsätter Yasha Maccanico."
Full story here.
"Egypt and Tunisia have shown little interest in reaching agreements with the EU on migration, mobility, and police cooperation despite receiving hundreds of millions of euros from Brussels for border control, according to EU documents.
The revelation is contained in a paper dated 15 July drafted by the Hungarian government which currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency ahead of a meeting of EU diplomats on migration and asylum policy.
The document is one of several published by Statewatch, a pro-transparency NGO on Monday (14 October)."
Full article here and see our externalisation bulletin here.
"Ein von der Bürgerrechtsorganisation Statewatch veröffentlichter Entwurf für die neue Übereinkunft von November legt nahe, dass es nun zwar einige Änderungen gibt. Es sollte aber bei einer fünfjährigen Speicherdauer und breiten Zugriffsmöglichkeiten für Sicherheitsbehörden bleiben. Auch hinsichtlich der Aufsicht über die Datenverarbeitung durch Anti-Terror-Behörden wird sich offenbar nicht viel ändern. Eine Weitergabe von PNR an Drittstaaten bliebe möglich, wenn "eine ernsthafte und unmittelbare Bedrohung der öffentlichen Sicherheit" besteht."
Full article here.
"The British and French governments are under renewed pressure after more people die trying to cross the English Channel.
The English Channel has once again become the site of tragedy, with more people dying while trying to reach the shores of the United Kingdom.
The latest incident highlights an escalating migrant crisis that is posing a challenge to both French and British authorities.
As the number of crossings surges, critics highlight the lack of cooperation between countries to address the issue.
What will it take to manage the influx of undocumented migrants?
Is targeting the criminal gangs who organise the risky journeys effective enough?
Or are governments overlooking deeper, systemic issues?"
Featuring Yasha Maccanico, Statewatch Researcher. Watch the programme here.
Read the full report here (pdf). You can find our full annual report and accounts on the website of the Charity Commission.
Civil liberties in an era of crisis and turmoil“It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes,” the Austrian psychoanalyst Theodor Reik once wrote. At a time of growing support for parties and movements of the extreme right, and the adoption of their ideas by mainstream political parties; rising geopolitical tension between the world’s most powerful states; outright war and military conflict; flagrant racism and xenophobia; and growing economic inequality, it is sobering to think that the 2020s may rhyme with the 1920s.
It is in this context that European states, and “the west” more broadly, are seeking to define themselves in opposition to their geopolitical foes – primarily Russia and China. Both these countries have vastly different forms of government to those of European states, marked by a disturbing level of state control over both individual and collective activities, and brutal human rights violations. Nevertheless, events in Europe increasingly appear to suggest that the differences between the “old continent” and its current rivals are of degree, rather than kind. Europe has plenty of its own authoritarian tendencies, and these are increasingly coming to the surface.
The most obvious and longstanding example is that of Hungary, where the far-right Fidesz government has been in power for over a decade. But Italy is now governed by a coalition of the far-right, with a prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose political life began in neo-fascist movements. Meloni, in turn, apparently forged close links with former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, whose governing programme was largely based on trying to appease the most right-wing elements of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, in France and Germany – the EU’s two most powerful states – the far-right is increasingly popular with the electorate. Examples abound within and without the EU, across the European continent, and beyond.
Predictions for the European Parliament elections consistently show a substantial increase in support for parties explicitly opposed to universal rights and freedoms. At the same time, amongst EU institutions and member states there is a broad consensus that forging alliances with and funding authoritarian leaders abroad is a price worth paying to halt the arrival of unwanted migrants and refugees, a policy goal that is also seeing increasing restrictions on and repression of those defending migrant and refugee rights, and those saving lives in the Mediterranean and Aegean. The ongoing attempts to delegitimise protest movements – for racial justice, action against climate change, or in solidarity with Palestine – including by painting them as extremist or even terrorist, has made the political colours of many European governments increasingly clear.
The claims advanced by European governments that they are steadfast supporters of human rights, civil liberties and democratic standards – an idea often bundled up in the phrase “European values” – is starting to ring hollow to a growing number of people. It is likely to become increasingly so for as long as governments that claim to support those values continue to undermine them domestically, and through the influence they exert over the institutions of the EU and other supranational fora. In this context, the role of an independent, critical and contentious civil society, understood in the broadest possible sense – a civil society of associations, organisations, trade unions, campaign groups, journalists, lawyers, researchers and beyond – becomes more important than ever.
Throughout 2023 we continued to support that vision of civil society. Our core tasks of reporting, documentation and analysis – focusing on police powers, border controls, state secrecy, surveillance and security technologies – have supported campaigns and movements seeking to defend and extend the values and principles that are being actively undermined by governments across the continent.
We remain a widely-used and well-respected resource: our website received almost 170,000 visits over the course of the year, our work was cited in the press more than once per fortnight, and at least 18 other civil society organisations or initiatives have publicly cited our work. We were closely involved in projects and activities undertaken by our networks, and participated in a wide range of events that helped to disseminate our work and foster the development of new ideas and projects. Our staff, trustees and contributors can be immensely proud of what we have achieved in 2023, and we are grateful to all those who supported our work, financially or otherwise.
Nevertheless, there remains much that we can do to improve, both with regard to the work we produce, and how we produce it. Some of those improvements began in 2023: at the end of the year, we employed our first ever member of staff to work on solely on communications, which in 2024 will change the way our work is publicly presented. This will help us to disseminate the findings of our research and reporting in clearer and more accessible ways, broadening our audience and aiding their understanding of our work.
We still have much to do in terms of working more closely within our networks and with organisations and associations of people at the sharp end of state power to gain a better understanding of what it is they want and need from our work. This will require increased coordination and cooperation across groups and countries, and will require us taking more time to explore topics and ideas before diving into research and writing. The increased income we have enjoyed in 2023, which we aim to see continue in 2024 and beyond, will help us with this. This will also make it possible for us to achieve the more mundane, but crucial, objective of increasing staff remuneration and conditions to a level that ensures we can recruit and retain people over the long-term – something we have made substantial progress with in recent years, but on which we still have much to do.
Ultimately, we also need to gain a better understanding of how civil society can work together in an increasingly repressive political environment to defend and, in the longer-term, extend the rights and freedoms that everyone in society should be able to exercise and enjoy. Our part in that struggle is to conduct research and investigations into policies and practices that undermine those rights and freedoms, and to oppose them through campaigning and advocacy alongside others. In the years to come, we will build on our existing knowledge, connections and practices to do that work even more effectively.
Chris Jones
Executive Director
May 2024
This is a truncated version of our annual report and accounts, which are available here.
"La eterna ambición de la Unión Europea y las promesas de sus líderes —y de la oposición— de devolver cada vez más inmigrantes en situación irregular se da de bruces con la realidad de sus propios datos. Un informe restringido de la Comisión Europea, publicado por la organización Statewatch, analiza al detalle la cooperación en materia de expulsiones de 34 países, y la conclusión es que la colaboración es “insuficiente”."
Full story here (paywall).
"In total, Frontex spent roughly €275 million in pilot projects from 2014 to 2022 to research new technologies, many of them related to drones, Yasha Maccanico, a researcher at non-profit Statewatch and the University of Bristol, told Euractiv.
(...)
For Maccanico, the increased spending on drones for “situational awareness” in “pre-frontier areas,” essentially means that Frontex will be able to identify vessels earlier, and closer to third-country borders, with patchy human rights records – such as Libya or Tunisia, and therefore push EU borders further back.
Using more drones for surveillance means fewer European coastguards and Frontex vessels will be needed at sea. With fewer EU vessels, there is a greater chance that a non-EU country will respond to migrant boats, removing the obligation for EU responders to bring them ashore, said Maccanico."
Full story here.
"The extent and secrecy of the network concerns Chris Jones, director of UK civil liberties organisation Statewatch. Jones says people may feel their unblemished travel and police records leave them unaffected, but that’s not the case.
“Biometric data is counted as a sensitive category of personal data, it merits high levels of protection. There needs to be great justification as to when organisations can collect it, and when they can share it,” Jones says.
“We're not just going to be talking about terrorists and criminals here, there's all sorts of people will be caught up in that - people who need protection, people who want to see their families, people who just want to visit the country and for some reason they are deemed suspicious.
“They are systems that won't do what's intended and don’t really comply with the rule of law as we understand it, because they turn everyone into a suspect.”
People may never find out their visa rejection was based on a data error by a country they once visited, he says. Mistakes, over-reach of states and breaches through tech failures or hacking are all worrying possibilities and loss of privacy a very real consequence.
“It doesn't matter if you have never done anything wrong, and you supposedly have nothing to fear. The only thing I ever say to that argument is: ‘Why do you have curtains on your house?’
“It's a question of what should your own government be allowed to know about you? And then, what should a foreign government be allowed to know about you? And even if those things are justified, why is all this not publicly clear and known and out in the open and vetted by your elected representatives?”"
Full story here.
