organization:libe committee

Report to the EU Parliament on #Frontex cooperation with third countries in 2017

A recent report by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, highlights the ongoing expansion of its activities with non-EU states.

The report covers the agency’s cooperation with non-EU states ("third countries") in 2017, although it was only published this month.

See: Report to the European Parliament on Frontex cooperation with third countries in 2017: ▻http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-report-ep-third-countries-coop-2017.pdf (pdf)

It notes the adoption by Frontex of an #International_Cooperation_Strategy 2018-2020, “an integral part of our multi-annual programme” which:

“guides the Agency’s interactions with third countries and international organisations… The Strategy identified the following priority regions with which Frontex strives for closer cooperation: the Western Balkans, Turkey, North and West Africa, Sub-Saharan countries and the Horn of Africa.”

The Strategy can be found in Annex XIII to the 2018-20 Programming Document: ►http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-programming-document-2018-20.pdf (pdf).

The 2017 report on cooperation with third countries further notes that Frontex is in dialogue with Senegal, #Niger and Guinea with the aim of signing Working Agreements at some point in the future.

The agency deployed three Frontex #Liaison_Officers in 2017 - to Niger, Serbia and Turkey - while there was also a #European_Return_Liaison_Officer deployed to #Ghana in 2018.

The report boasts of assisting the Commission in implementing informal agreements on return (as opposed to democratically-approved readmission agreements):

"For instance, we contributed to the development of the Standard Operating Procedures with #Bangladesh and the “Good Practices for the Implementation of Return-Related Activities with the Republic of Guinea”, all forming important elements of the EU return policy that was being developed and consolidated throughout 2017."

At the same time:

“The implementation of 341 Frontex coordinated and co-financed return operations by charter flights and returning 14 189 third-country nationals meant an increase in the number of return operations by 47% and increase of third-country nationals returned by 33% compared to 2016.”

Those return operations included Frontex’s:

“first joint return operation to #Afghanistan. The operation was organised by Hungary, with Belgium and Slovenia as participating Member States, and returned a total of 22 third country nationals to Afghanistan. In order to make this operation a success, the participating Member States and Frontex needed a coordinated support of the European Commission as well as the EU Delegation and the European Return Liaison Officers Network in Afghanistan.”

▻http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-report-third-countries.htm
#externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières #contrôles_frontaliers
#Balkans #Turquie #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Afrique_du_Nord #Afrique_sub-saharienne #Corne_de_l'Afrique #Guinée #Sénégal #Serbie #officiers_de_liaison #renvois #expulsions #accords_de_réadmission #machine_à_expulsion #Hongrie #Belgique #Slovénie #réfugiés_afghans

Security Union: A stronger EU Agency for the management of information systems for security and borders

Today, the European Parliament (LIBE Committee) and the Council (COREPER) reached a political compromise on the Commission’s proposal to strengthen the mandate of the eu-LISA, the EU Agency for the operational management of large scale IT systems for migration, security and border management. Welcoming the compromise agreement, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King said:

Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos: “Today’s agreement represents another crucial building block towards a more secure and resilient European Union. A strengthened eu-LISA will be the nerve centre for the development and maintenance of all our information systems on migration, border management and security, and crucially, their interoperability. We want to connect all the dots, not just legally but also operationally – and a stronger and more efficient eu-LISA will precisely help us do this.”

Commissioner Julian King: “In the future, eu-LISA will play a pivotal role in helping keep Europe safe. Today’s agreement means that the Agency will have the resources it needs to manage the EU’s information systems for security and border management, help them to interact more efficient and improve the quality of the data they hold – an important step forward.”

The upgrade, proposed by the Commission in June 2017, will enable eu-LISA to roll-out the technical solutions to achieve the full interoperability of EU information systems for migration, security and border management. The Agency will now also have the right tools to develop and manage future large-scale EU information systems, such as the Entry Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). This comes in addition to the management of the existing system, such as the Schengen Information System (SIS), the Visa Information System (VIS) and Eurodac, which the Agency is already responsible for.
Next steps

The compromised text agreed in today’s final trilogue will now have to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.
Background

In April 2016Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN••• the Commission presented a Communication on stronger and smarter information systems for borders and security, initiating a discussion on how information systems in the European Union can better enhance border management and internal security. Since then the Commission tabled a number of legal proposals to ensure that the outstanding information gaps are closed and the EU information systems work together more intelligently and effectively and that borders guards and law enforcement officials have the information they need to do their jobs. This includes strengthening the mandate of eu-LISA proposed by the Commission in June 2017 and upgrading the EU information systems to make them interoperable in December 2017.

The EU Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems, eu-LISA, successfully started operations in December 2012. It is responsible for the management and maintenance of the SIS II, VIS and EURODAC. The main operational task is to ensure that these systems are kept functioning 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Agency is also tasked with ensuring the necessary security measures, data security and integrity as well as compliance with data protection rules.

▻https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/news/security-union-stronger-eu-lisa-agency-management-information-systems-secu

#sécurité #surveillance #migrations #asile #réfugiés #VIS #SIS #Eurodac #eu-LISA #frontières #surveillance_des_frontières #big_data #Schengen #Europe #EU #UE
cc @marty @daphne @isskein

New report on the EU’s relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States

This new study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, examines the EU’s mechanism of relocation of asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other Member States. It examines the scheme in the context of the #Dublin System, the hotspot approach, and the EU-Turkey Statement, recommending that asylum seekers’ interests, and rights be duly taken into account, as it is only through their full engagement that relocation will be successful. Relocation can become a system that provides flexibility for the Member States and local host communities, as well as accommodating the agency and dignity of asylum seekers. This requires greater cooperation from receiving states, and a clearer role for a single EU legal and institutional framework to organise preference matching and rationalise efforts and resources overall.

▻https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/news/new-report-on-the-eu-relocation-of-asylum-seekers-from-greece-and-italy-to
#Grèce #Italie #réfugiés #asile #migrations #hotspots #relocalisation

Pour télécharger le rapport:
▻https://www.ceps.eu/system/files/pe%20583%20132%20en_All%281%29.pdf
#accord_UE-Turquie

Fit for Purpose? The #Facilitation_Directive and the Criminalisation of Humanitarian Assistance to Irregular Migrants

This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee. With renewed efforts to counter people smuggling in the context of an unprecedented influx of migrants and refugees into the EU, it assesses existing EU legislation in the area – the 2002 Facilitators’ Package – and how it deals with those providing humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants. The study maps EU legislation against the international legal framework and explores the effects – both direct and indirect – of the law and policy practice in selected Member States. It finds significant inconsistencies, divergences and grey areas, such that humanitarian actors are often deterred from providing assistance. The study calls for a review of the legislative framework, greater legal certainty and improved data collection on the effects of the legislation.

▻http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/fr/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU(2016)536490

#rapport #passeurs #smugglers #assistance_humanitaire #criminalisation #délit_de_solidarité #solidarité #asile #migrations #réfugiés

Lien pour télécharger le rapport:
▻http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/536490/IPOL_STU(2016)536490_EN.pdf

Changes Caused by the Dublin IV Regulation [en]

The text is structured by the changed/added articles and paragraphs:

Art. 2g Extension of the Term “Family”
Art. 3 P. 3 Inadmissibility Process
Art. 4 P. 2/Art. 5 P. 4 Deadline for Document Submission
Art. 5 P. 3 Restriction of Social Services
Art. 6 P. 1 Obligatory Information for Refugees
[Art. 8 P. 3b No Examination of Unaccompanied Minor’s Backgrounds]
Art. 8 P. 4 Deportation of Unaccompanied Minors
Art. 9 P. 1 One-off Examination of Criteria
Art. 10 P. 5 Ceasing Protection of Minors in Member States not Responsible
Removal of Transfer of Responsibility/Article 19 of Dublin III
Art. 19 Restriction of Sovereignty
Art. 20 P. 1e Expansion of Return Possibilities
Art. 20 P. 4 Heavily Restricted Examination after Secondary Movements
Art. 20 P. 5 No Legal Remedy for Taken Back Refugees
Art. 24 P. 1 Deportation from Member States not Responsible
Art. 26 Take Back Notifications
Art. 27 P. 4 Removal of the Right to Suspensive Effect
Art. 28 P. 2 Deadline for the Possibility to Receive Legal Remedy
Art. 28 P. 4 Restriction of Legal Remedy
Art. 30 P. 2 Handling of Unjustified Deportation
Art. 34 P. 2 Corrective Allocation Mechanism: Reference Number
Art. 35 P. 2 Corrective Allocation Mechanism: Reference Key
Art. 36 P. 1 Corrective Allocation Mechanism: Transfer of Responsibility
Art. 37 P. 1/3 Corrective Allocation Mechanism: “Financial Solidarity”
Communication Detention and Denial of Social Services

▻https://ineumanity.noblogs.org/dublin-iv/changes-caused-by-the-dublin-iv-regulation-en

#Dublin_IV #asile #migrations #réfugiés

Snowden’s Statement to European Parliamentary Committee on ‘Greatest Human Rights Challenge of Our Time’
▻http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/30/snowdens-statement-to-european-parliamentary-committee-on-gre

Lu par Jesselin Radack :

I thank the European Parliament and the LIBE Committee for taking up the challenge of mass surveillance. The surveillance of whole populations rather than individuals threatens to be the greatest human rights challenge of our time. The success of economies in developing nations relies increasingly on their creative output and if that success is to continue we must remember that creativity is the product of curiosity, which in turn is the product of privacy.

A culture of secrecy has denied our societies the opportunity to determine the appropriate balance between the human right of privacy and governmental interest in investigation.

These are not decisions that should be made for the people but only by the people after full informed and fearless debate. Yet public debate is not possible without public knowledge and in my country the cost for one in my position of returning public knowledge to public hands has been persecution and exile.

If we are to enjoy such debates in the future, we cannot rely on individual sacrifice. We must create better channels for people of conscience to inform not only trusted agents of the government but independent representatives outside of the government.

When I began my work, it was with the sole intention of making possible the debate we see occurring here in this body and in many other bodies around the world.

Today we see legislative bodies forming new committees, calling for investigations and proposing new solutions for modern problems. We see emboldened courts that are no longer afraid to consider critical questions of national security. We see brave executives remembering that if a public is prevented from knowing how they are being governed the necessary result is that they are no longer self-governing. And we see the public reclaiming an equal seat at the table of government.

The work of a generation is beginning here with your hearings and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.

Enquête sur la NSA : les députés entendent des experts américains de la protection des données, des dénonciateurs et la déclaration de M. Snowden
▻http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/fr/news-room/content/20130930IPR21126/html/Enquête-sur-la-NSA-quatrième-audition-de-la-commission-des-libertés-

« Vous ne devriez pas poursuivre le nouvel accord de libre-échange [avec les États-Unis] à moins d’être sûrs que les données à caractère personnel sont protégées », a suggéré Marc Rotenberg de l’Electronic Privacy Information Centre, une organisation de droits civils dont le siège se trouve aux États-Unis. Certains députés ont pris acte de sa proposition, mais d’autres l’ont rejetée.