Demand a Humane Approach to Immigration

On International Migrants Day, we reflect on wins and losses in the fight against violations of migrants’ rights.

GPS ankle tags are used around the world in the criminal justice and immigration enforcement sectors, to monitor people's location 24/7. How do these tags work? What's the impact on people made to wear them? We've tested some to find out.

The UK puts migrants under 24/7 GPS surveillance. As usual, private companies are outsourced to deliver this hostile policy - who are they? We've investigated.

The privatisation of migration control and policing takes different shapes and forms.

The latest iteration comes in disguise – specifically, in four pastel colours: if you were to look at this company's main website, in fact, you'd only find wristbands and tools to monitor the well-being of elderly people who live alone. But as stated in their annual report, the majority of British company Buddi's revenue originates from the criminal justice market.

Technology and data are increasingly used for immigration enforcement, putting migrants’ fate in the hands of systems driven by data processing and algorithmic decision making.

As the UK plans a future of dynamic risk assessments for visa applicants, the collection of biographic and biometric data and automated data sharing, we explore the degree to which privacy and data protection laws can defend migrants against abuses of their data and seek redress when their rights are denied.

This article presents some of the tools and techniques deployed as part surveillance practices and data-driven immigration policies routinely leading to discriminatory treatment of peoplee and undermining peoples’ dignity, with a particular focus on the UK.

As migration continues to be high on the social and political agenda, Western countries are increasingly adopting an approach that criminalises people at the border. Asylum seekers are often targeted with intrusive surveillance technologies and afforded only limited rights (including in relation to data protection), often having the effect of being treated as “guilty until proven innocent”.

A recent report explains how the central German migration authority uses mobile phone extraction technology in the asylum application procedure, and why it is highly problematic.

UK Local Authorities are looking at people’s social media accounts as part of their intelligence gathering and investigation tactics.

The ongoing requirement for asylum-seekers to register their claim for asylum in person reveals the Home Office's misplaced and onerous emphasis on biometrics collection at the expense of asylum-seekers' health

Africa is a testing ground for technologies produced elsewhere: as a result, personal data of its people are increasingly stored in hundreds of databases.

A look at attempts to dismantle smuggling networks in the Sahara, powered by Europe's gifts of surveillance.

The EU gives millions to surveillance companies, universities, and government agencies to develop cutting-edge surveillance technologies.

Niger has recently joined other countries in creating a biometric database that will be used in the upcoming elections.