NGOs Sound Alarm Over The Tech Underpinning EU's Deportation Agenda
A 'Closed Control Access Center' refugee detention facility in Samos, Greece. (Photo by LOUISA ... More GOULIAMAKI / AFP) (Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)
A coalition of NGOs and civil society groups have released an open letter urging the European Commission to repeal its proposed regulation on deportations. In particular, the group is warning that the emergent technological and data solutions underpinning the Commission's detention and deportation ambitions risk "turning migration management into a surveillance business, profiting from racialized fear and digital control.'
The new legislative proposal, known as the 'Deportation Regulation,' was introduced by the Commission in March. It comes amid a tense political atmosphere over the issue of migration around Europe. Far-right and anti-immigrant groups across the continent have seen considerable success by framing migration - particularly people seeking shelter in Europe from abroad - as an issue of European security and wellbeing, rather than as a humanitarian concern.
Amid this, the Commission's Deportation Regulation would introduce various measures that are, according to Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, designed to make the process of removing people more efficient and give Europeans citizens 'the feeling that they have control over what is happening in Europe.' These measures included expanded detention powers for member states, including the detention of children, as well as GPS tagging and electronic monitoring of people who are under a removal order. They also include the bulk data collection of foreigners - including sensitive personal information - and potentially sharing that data with non-EU countries.
The regulation also appears to further expand the EU's regime of algorithmic and data-based control over migration. This regime can already be seen in places like the 'Closed Control Access Center' refugee detention facilities in Greece, which operate much like high-tech prisons, with biometric scanning for moving around the facilities, AI-informed monitoring and behavior prediction technology. The EU is also considering measures akin to the 'predictive policing algorithms' that will be familiar to a US audience, which often use race and ethnicity data to inform policing decisions.
Such emergent technologies, as applied to migration management, are often referred to as the 'border industrial complex.' Migration researchers and NGOs have long raised concerns about the potential harm such regimes might cause to people subject to them, while at the same financially benefitting companies linked to the defense, surveillance and prison logistics sectors. As an example of what this looks like in the US already, think of big data firm Palantir. The firm, founded by major conservative donor Peter Thiel, has been the recipient of major US defense contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, Palantir is known to have a $30m dollar contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, developing algorithmic solutions which are to assist the agency in tracking and arresting people.
Such examples, NGOs fear, are illustrative of where Europe is headed with the new Deportation Regulation proposal.
'This not about safety or justice,' said Sarah Chander, Director of the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, a member of the #ProtectNotSurveil coalition. 'This is about turning migration management into a surveillance business, profiting from racialized fear and digital control.'
At the same time, Silvia Carta with the PICUM charity, which supports undocumented migrants in Europe, pointed to what she calls a 'double standard on data protection' in Europe, as migrants will likely be excluded from digital rights protections that citizens benefit from.
The European Commission, which is currently working with member states in exploring possibilities for 'return hubs' - deportation centers - outside of the EU, has previously stated that the new regime will take into account people's fundamental rights and wellbeing.
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