Sweden to push for more transparent EU migration rules
[euobserver.com] The upcoming Swedish EU presidency will push for more transparent rules governing migration when it begins negotiations on a five-year justice and home affairs programme later this year, Europe minister Cecilia Malmstrom said on Monday. "We want to focus more on the individual as a victim and to have clear and transparent rules on […]
French will use British ‚people finding‘ technology to scan for illegal immigrants trying to cross Channel
By Peter Allen Cutting edge British technology is to be used by the French to detect illegal migrants trying to cross the Channel. [dailymail.co.uk] The £15million ‚people finding‘ initiative is part of an agreement reached today between Immigration Minister Phil Woolas and his French counterpart Eric Besson in the Alpine spa town of Evian. In […]
Italy Passes Draconian Anti-Immigrant Law
Italy Passes Draconian Anti-Immigrant Law: Italy Passes Draconian Anti-Immigrant Law The law makes illegal immigration a crime punishable with a fine from EUR 5 000 to EUR 10 000. [novinite.com] Italy’s center-right coalition adopted a tough law against illegal immigration Thursday despite fierce criticism from the opposition, rights groups and the Vatican. The law makes […]
Special aircraft takes expelled Africans from Prague
Prague – Some 100 Africans were expelled aboard a special aircraft flying from Prague in the small hours today for staying illegally in Europe or violating law, the Nova commercial television channel reported. [ceskenoviny.cz] The aircraft heading for Africa took off from Dublin and it landed in Prague where Africans expelled from the Czech Republic, […]
France: No to new EDVIGE!
A text of a draft law on Police Files initiated by the two French deputies Delphine Batho and Jacques-Alain Bénisti has been approved by the Laws Commission of the National Assembly. The draft law contains a new form of the EDVIGE file, nicknamed now EDVIGE 3.0. [edri.org] EDVIGE was a new database created in June […]
The French Government acts like a bulldog with its three strikes law
[edri.org] Nicolas Sarkozy and the French Government want to go on with the new three strikes draft law (called also Hadopi 2) which was presented to the Council of Ministers on 24 June 2009. The emergency procedure has been initiated and therefore the two chambers will have only one reading for the text. The new […]
France passes new law to ban ‚gangs‘
President Sarkozy’s law-and-order push now includes three years in jail or a 45,000 euro fine for being a member of a gang. By Robert Marquand [csmonitor.com] Paris – On Monday, the French legislature passed a radical new law making it illegal to be part of a "gang" – if it’s one that has been or […]
Police conducts public order action in Bucharest
[nineoclock.ro] Over 3,700 people were asked to provide identification papers, 2,700 cars were checked and over 2,100 fines worth RON 388,690 were handed out, while 93 drivers were left without a licence and 77 drivers were left without their registration documents during a wide operation on Friday, under the coordination of the General Romanian Police […]
SWARMS Project: Swarming Drones to Sting the Enemy?
[defenseindustrydaily.com] Like a swarm of angry bees, unmanned aerial, ground, and sea vehicles automonously converge on enemy troops, aircraft and ships, decide what to do, then engage the enemy with surveillance or weapons to help U.S. forces defeat them. All this without direct human intervention. Sounds like science fiction? The American military is one of […]
U.S. launches another drone plane to patrol Canadian border
[news.aol.ca] The U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched another unmanned surveillance aircraft over the Canadian border on Monday, this time in the Great Lakes area, to try to stem the flow of drugs, migrants and terrorists into the country, U.S. officials told CBC News. The U.S. has been using the Predator B drone aircraft to […]
Frontex handover of migrants to Italy results in forced repatriation
Karl Stagno-Navarra The European Union border agency Frontex operating from Malta has for the first time ever coordinated a mission that led to the forced repatriation operation of migrants at sea. [maltatoday.com] 74 illegal migrants sighted last Thursday afternoon by a Maltese private aircraft at approximately 126 miles south-east of Malta, was transmitted to a […]
Canadian law enforcement community to directly access essential INTERPOL databases
Ottawa – June 12th, 2009. Canada is set to become one of the first countries in the world to provide police officers nationwide with technology to gain immediate access to INTERPOL’s vast international criminal databases. [news.gc.ca] “This project will have a positive and immediate impact on Canada’s ability to fight global crime,” said Public Safety […]
EU security proposals are ‚dangerously authoritarian‘
The European Union is to press on with plans to upgrade its internal security procedures despite civil liberties groups describing the proposals as „dangerously authoritarian“. By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels [telegraph.co.uk] Europe’s justice ministers will hold talks on the „domestic security policy“ and surveillance network proposals, known in Brussels circles as the „Stockholm programme“, on […]
Italy/Libya: Gaddafi Visit Celebrates Dirty Deal
Italy and Libya Join Forces to Prevent Boat Migrants From Leaving or Seeking Asylum Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Mu`ammar al-Gaddafi are building their friendship agreement at the expense of people from other countries whom both regard as expendable. It looks less like friendship and more like a dirty deal to enable Italy to dump […]
Improving exchange of information on persons disturbing the public order and/or endangering public security by using SIS
COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION from Presidency to SIS/SIRENE Working Party (Mixed Committee EU/Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, Liechtenstein) The need to share information on people endangering security of Schengen Area has been discussed for many years at various levels of the Council. The SIS was recognized as a possible tool for the mentioned sharing of […]
The surveillance society is an EU-wide issue
The EU’s new five-year plan for justice and home affairs will export the UK’s database state to the rest of the EU [guardian.co.uk] Every five years the EU adopts a five-year plan for justice and home affairs affecting many areas of EU citizens‘ civil liberties – policing, immigration and asylum, criminal law, databases and data […]
EU agency helps Greece with immigration
KIPI, Greece – Weary of illegal immigrants crossing over its rugged borders with Turkey, Greece gets help from EU agency Frontex to search trucks and monitor clandestine crossings. Heartbeat and carbon dioxide detectors are used, along with heat cameras to scan vehicles [hurriyet.com.tr] Officers from a European Union, or EU, border protection agency used high-tech […]
The military exercise “Thracia 2009” has ended
[bnr.bg] The military exercise “Thracia 2009”, which the Agency “Frontex” organized on the Bulgarian-Turkish border and the Greek-Turkish border, has ended, announced the Ministry of the Interior. The exercise was designed as a training session for the coordination, which “Frontex” has for its groups for Rapid Border Interventional Team (RABIT). “Frontex”, the EU agency based […]
Brain scanning may be used in security checks
Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities for security checks. [guardian.co.uk] The experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and in […]
“FUTURE POLICING IN EUROPE: A SHARED AGENDA FOR RESEARCH”
[cepol.europa.eu] The Police Science Conference 2009 will deal with the topic of ‘Future Policing in Europe: a Shared Agenda for Research’. The topic will be approached from both an academic and practical angle. Key-note speakers will provide qualified input, whereas working groups, poster sessions and mini-seminars will give participants the opportunity to present and discuss […]