(Issue 13/22, also available as a PDF)
Welcome to the latest edition of Statewatch News, featuring:
The EU has spent €341 million on research into artificial intelligence technologies for asylum, immigration and border control purposes since 2007, yet the proposed AI Act currently being debated in EU institutions fails to provide meaningful safeguards against harmful uses of those technologies, says a report published today by Statewatch.
In copying an Israeli scheme to ship refugees to Rwanda, Boris Johnson’s government has turned to the world leader in keeping out ‘undesirables’
Middle East Eye – 20 April 2022
There is nothing innovative or humanitarian about Britain’s new policy of shipping asylum seekers, “on a one-way ticket“, thousands of miles to central Africa. Nor is there anything surprising about the choice of destination: Rwanda. Boris Johnson’s government has simply copied wholesale a programme established by Israel eight years ago.
By TruePublica: Here is a story not published in a single mainstream newspaper in Britain. A humanitarian association has now filed manslaughter charges against high-ranking French and British officials for failing to help 27 people who subsequently drowned on November 26th attempting to cross the English Channel.
You may have seen that Priti Patel has been dis-invited to an upcoming summit of European Ministers this weekend to discuss the tragedy in the Channel.
As the Home Secretary won’t be meeting with European Ministers to discuss policy, it’s more important than ever that the Government hears our calls for safe routes now loud and clear.
Yesterday 24 November 2021, at least 27 men, women and children died attempting to reach safety in the UK. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of all those who have lost their lives.
The tragic truth is that these deaths could, and should, have been prevented.
Priti Patel failed to prevent them. She must resign.
Join our calls for her to resign.
| Tell Priti to resign |
Wow. Last week, hundreds of you took to the streets and went into your communities to deliver the message loud and clear: we demand no borders in the NHS.
Together we are shifting the racist and nationalist tide by refusing to allow our healthcare service to become a tool of hostile immigration enforcement. We are fighting to ensure it stays true to its founding principles: that healthcare should be available to all who need it, regardless of where you’re from or your ability to pay.
The world’s wealthiest countries are responding to the climate crisis by militarizing their borders
The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases spend an average of 2.3 times as much on arming their borders as on climate finance. Some spend 15 times as much. They aim to keep migrants away, rather than addressing the causes of displacement.
British Home Secretary Pritti Patel sees the country’s offshore migrant detention centers, referred to by some as “concentration camps” as a model for the U.K. to follow.
19 July 2021 — Statewatch
As part of our ongoing work on the development and deployment of biometric technologies for policing and migration control, we are organising two workshops in October this year.
These training and collaborative learning sessions will involve:
To find out more and to express your interest in attending, please see our call, available in:
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7 July 2021 — BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees)
As our team digest the Nationality and Borders Bill and its dire implications for human rights we join many others in expressing our extreme dismay at the proposition of such a cruel and unworkable immigration bill.
7 May 2021 — Statewatch News
(Issue 09/21, also available as a PDF)
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As part of its ongoing drive to increase the removal of migrants from EU territory, the European Commission unveiled a new strategy on “voluntary” return and reintegration at the end of April. The document states the use of detention “can increase the uptake of voluntary returns at early stages of the return process.” In particular, the proposed introduction of “border return procedures” – which could introduce mandatory detention of up to 10 months – is seen as key.
30 April 2021 — Institute of Race Relations
With the public consultation closing on 6 May, it is vital to respond and to call out the illegality, impracticality and immorality of the asylum proposals in the government’s ‘new plan for immigration’.
23 April 2021 — Migrants Organise
At the end of March, the Home Office launched its consultation about the New Plan for Immigration. The consultation questionnaire has 45 questions – some are multiple-choice and some are open questions. But all of them are framed in such a way that it is almost impossible to answer any of them in a meaningful way. Priti Patel’s “New Plan for Immigration” is not so new and it is not a plan either. Continue reading…
2nd April 2021 — True Publica
By TruePublica: The senior partner at an independent law firm located near London, established for 30 years, has just published the following information on his blog, which is very concerning (source). In essence, lawyers are now being threatened by the Home office with huge personal losses, which could easily lead to personal bankruptcies for simply making an application to defend their client’s life, which may be at stake if they are deported back to their own country.
29 March 2021 — Craig Murray
By Craig Murray
I frequently find myself differing with readers who find it hard to understand that I can have personal friendships with people with politics very contrary to my own. I do not believe having a different opinion to me makes you a bad person. But there are times when I look at political opponents and consider that they can only be motivated by malice. I honestly believe you have to be a psychopath to wish to inflict the kind of calculated cruelty on hapless individuals who have already suffered much, that was presaged in Priti Patel’s new proposals for dealing with asylum seekers.
23 March 2021 — Migrants Organise
Dear friends,
We are excited to announce the third event in our #SolidarityKnowsNoBorders webinar series THIS Thursday 25th of March at 6pm – Cases into Causes, Causes into a Movement: How Can Individual Campaigns Lead to Collective Justice? Make sure you register on Zoom to join now!
5 March 2021 — Migrants Organise
EU citizens with complex mental health needs risk being removed and indefinitely detained from 30th June. Migrants Organise is taking the Home Office to court to prevent this injustice.
In this blog, our Legal Organiser, Brian Dikoff, argues that unless action is taken now, tens of thousands more vulnerable people are at risk of being left without any immigration status and plunged into the Hostile Environment.
25 November 2020 — Institute of Race Relations
Today, we publish a major report, Deadly Crossings and the Militarisation of Britain’s Borders.
20 October 2020 — Statewatch
The EU is expanding a host of databases used for migration and border control. A key focus of this is the increased collection and use of personal data to facilitate forced removals. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 