{UAH} Fwd: FW: News: Med crisis and EU response: 29 May 2015 (13/15)

________________________________________________
Statewatch: Monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe
PO Box 1516, London, N16 0EW. UK
tel: +44(0)20-8802-1882; fax: +44(0)20-8880-1727
http://www.statewatch.org

To unsubscribe send an email with 'remove' in the subject line to office@statewatch.org from the address you would like to removeFYI
Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 16:03:11 +0100
To: statewatch@gn.apc.org
From: statewatch-off@geo2.poptel.org.uk
Subject: News: Med crisis and EU response: 29 May 2015 (13/15)



Statewatch News Online, 29 May 2015 (13/15)

Home page:

http://www.statewatch.org/

e-mail: office@statewatch.org




Follow us on


and





Statewatch coverage of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean


New Key Documents


1. European External Action Service (EEAS): Military Advice:
RESTRICTED doc no: 8802-15

2. Political and Security Committee: PMG Recommendations on the draft
Crisis Management

3.Draft Crisis Management Concept for a possible CSDP operation to
disrupt human smuggling networks in the Southern Central Mediterranean –
Approval

4. Proposal for Council Decision

5. WRITTEN PROCEDURE for adoption of: Council Decision

6. Formal Decision in the Official Journal


NEWS


1. Statewatch Briefing: Coercive measures or expulsion:
Fingerprinting migrants

2. Press coverage (29.5.15):

3. FORCIBLE FINGERPRINTING Guidelines.

4. European Commission Migration Action Plan

5. Interview | Bridget Anderson on Europe's 'violent
humanitarianism' in the Mediterranean

6. Statewatch Analysis: Manufacturing consent, EU style: The EU's
anti-smuggling military operation

7. TWO "RESTRICTED" EU DOCUMENTS military plans

8. EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF BORDER GUARDS?:


New Key Documents


1. European External Action Service (EEAS): Military Advice on the
"Draft Crisis Management Concept for a possible CSDP operation to
disrupt human smuggling networks in the Southern Central
Mediterranean" (RESTRICTED doc no: 8802-15)



http://www.statewatch.org/news/2015/may/eu-military-refugee-plan-EUMC.pdf



2. Political and Security Committee: PMG Recommendations on the draft
Crisis Management Concept for a possible CSDP operation to disrupt human
smuggling networks in the Southern Central Mediterranean (RESTRICTED doc
no:


http://www.statewatch.org/news/2015/may/eu-military-refugee-plan-PMG-8824-15.pdf



3. Draft Crisis Management Concept for a possible CSDP
operation to disrupt human smuggling networks in the Southern Central
Mediterranean – Approval:

8702-15 LIMITE doc mo: 8702-15) plus

REV 1


4. Proposal of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy to the Council of 19/05/2015 for a Council
Decision on a European Union military operation in the Southern Central
Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR Med): LIMITE doc no:

8731-15


5. WRITTEN PROCEDURE for adoption of: Council Decision amending and
extending Decision 2013/233/CFSP on the European Union Integrated Border
Management Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM Libya): LIMITE doc no: CM

2671-15


6. Formal Decision in the Official Journal:


http://www.statewatch.org/news/2015/may/eu-council-EUBAM-libya-amending-2013-decision.pdf



NEWS


1. Statewatch Briefing:

Coercive measures or expulsion: Fingerprinting migrants
(pdf):


New guidelines released by the European Commission allow Member States to
use physical and mental coercive measures to take fingerprints of
migrants and asylum seekers entering Europe, including minors and
pregnant women. If they refuse, they face detention, expulsion and a
potential five year EU-wide ban.


"If the data-subject still refuses to cooperate it is suggested that
officials trained in the proportionate use of coercion may apply the
minimum level of coercion required, while ensuring respect of the
dignity and physical integrity of the data-subject.." [emphasis
added]


See also:

The new EU Migration Agenda takes shape: analysis of the first new
measures (EU Law Analysis, link)


2. EU: MED CRISIS: Press coverage:




EU's refugee plans need a reality check: The EU this week outlined plans
to resettle and relocate refugees, but one expert taking a closer look at
the proposals argues they put the rights of migrants and asylum seekers
at risk. (The Local, link) Good critique of EU plans


EU border chief wants
protection from armed smugglers: The EU's border agency Frontex wants
military protection from armed migrant smugglers as it expands operations
in the Mediterranean and closer to the Libyan coast (euobserver,
link)




British tourists complain that impoverished boat migrants are making
holidays 'awkward' in Kos (Independent, link)



Mediterranean migrant crisis: Hundreds rescued off Sicily (BBC
News, link) and
Migration: Are more people on the move than ever before? (BBC,
link) with map




Italy Hands Smuggler Unprecedented Life Sentence as Europe Prepares for
Migrant Deluge (BB, link)




Tunisian - and Top E.U. Generals - Fear Mission Creep Madness in
Libya (The Daily Beast, link): "A newly revealed
classified document and a history of grave misjudgments warn against the
dangers of the new EU plan to stop migrants.... Europe's defense chiefs
are warning their political superiors that the planned military mission
to stop migrant-smuggling boats crossing the Mediterranean can lead to
land operations in Libya and possible clashes with the Islamic State's
affiliate in that failing North African state, a turn of events bound to
threaten neighboring Tunisia's fragile equilibrium still
further."




Tunisian PM Speaks Against EU Military Action to Stop Refugee
Smugglers (Sputnik News, link):


"Tunisia opposes any military effort by the EU to tackle refugee
smuggling across the Mediterranean Sea, Prime Minister Habib Essid said
Thursday. "Tunisia's position was always clear… We are originally against
all military action, both to regulate political conflict and to regulate
the problem with illegal smugglers," Essid said in the European
Parliament."




Migrants en Méditerranée : la Tunisie contre toute intervention
militaire [Migrants in the Mediterranean: Tunisia against all
military intervention] (rtbf.be, link):


"Habib Essid said that his country is "against any military
intervention to solve this problem. This problem must be resolved
upstream and downstream. These people take risks, sell everything they
have around them to come to Europe, for more freedom, for better economic
opportunities for work. I know the problems this poses for all countries
of the European Union, but the solution is to look other than make
occasional military interventions."


The European Parliament press release does not mention these
comments:

Tunisia's Prime Minister Habib Essid on security and migration
challenges (pdf)




Before the Boat: Understanding the Migrant Journey (MPI, link):
"Deep, sophisticated insight into the decision-making process of
those who undertake these journeys is necessary; without this information
and a wider understanding of the political economy of migrant smuggling,
policymakers essentially are making decisions in the dark."


3. EU: FORCIBLE FINGERPRINTING, DETENTION, EXPULSION & ENTRY BAN
of MIGRANTS including pregnant women and minors: European Commission:

Implementation of the Eurodac Regulation as regards the obligation to
take fingerprints (pdf)


Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director comments:


"Where is the EU going? Migrants, including pregnant women and
minors, who have fled from war, persecution and poverty are to be
forcibly finger-printed or held in detention until they acquiesce or
expelled & banned from entry. To add insult to injury the Commission
deliberately

withheld publication of the Guidelines yesterday to control
news reporting when announcing its new migration plans."


See also:

Fingerprinting by force: secret discussions on "systematic
identification" of migrants and asylum seekers (Statewatch
News, March 2015)


4. EU: European Commission Migration Action Plan: The following documents
were released:


-

Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION establishing provisional measures in
the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and
Greece (COM 286-15, pdf)

- Communication:

EU Action Plan against migrant smuggling (2015 - 2020) (COM
285-15, pdf)

-

European Commission makes progress on Agenda on Migration
(Press release, pdf)


-

Questions and Answers (pdf)


But if you search for the following you get a PR statement/News
management (as of 11.30 - 20.00: 27 May)


-

Guidelines on the implementation of EU rules on the obligation to take
fingerprints (pdf)

-

Recommendation on a European Resettlement Scheme (pdf) see:

Initial Draft (pdf)


5 EU: MED-CRISIS:

Interview | Bridget Anderson on Europe's 'violent humanitarianism' in the
Mediterranean (Ceasefire, link):


"Bridget Anderson, Professor of Migration at the University of
Oxford, speaks to Ceasefire's Luke De Noronha about Europe's response to
the Mediterranean crisis and how borders are 'a dystopian project whose
enforcement exposes the horrific violence of the state..... But it is the
nation state that is ultimately what needs to be challenged. Of course
the nation state is not going to quietly legislate itself out of
existence. And while bordering has intensified, resistance has
too.'


6. EU: MED-CRISIS: Statewatch Analysis:

Manufacturing consent, EU style: The EU's anti-smuggling military
operation (pdf) Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of
Essex:


A EU military planning document reiterates that the EU's new
anti-smuggling operation could result in a ground conflict in Libya that
leads to the loss of life of soldiers, refugees and smugglers, and
destabilise Libya in the process. The document makes clear that most of
the key details of the plan have not been worked out yet, and there is no
political end point. But this is all fine, because the document plans a
media strategy designed to brush these problems under the
carpet.


7. EU: MED-CRISIS: TWO "RESTRICTED" EU DOCUMENTS made public by
Wikileaks


Exposes full military plan: European External Action Service (EEAS):

Military Advice on the "Draft Crisis Management Concept for a
possible CSDP operation to disrupt human smuggling networks in the
Southern Central Mediterranean" (RESTRICTED doc no: 8802-15,
pdf):


"INFORMATION STRATEGY: the EUMC identifies a risk to EU
reputation linked to any perceived transgressions by the EU force
through any public misinterpretation of its tasks and objectives, or
the potential negative impact should loss of life be attributed,
correctly or incorrectly, to action or inaction by the EU
force.." [emphasis added]


And: Political and Security Committee:

PMG Recommendations on the draft Crisis Management Concept for a
possible CSDP operation to disrupt human smuggling networks in the
Southern Central Mediterranean (RESTRICTED doc no: 8824, pdf):
"PMG Recommendations on the draft Crisis Management Concept for a
possible CSDP operation to disrupt human smuggling networks in the
Southern Central Mediterranean, as finalised by the Politico-Military
Group, reinforced by Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management,
on 12 May 2015."


And see:
Boat-sinking operation
poses 'risk' to EU image (euobserver, link)


8. EU: EUROPEAN SYSTEM OF BORDER GUARDS?:

21 May 2015: Speech by Commissioner Avramopoulos at the Frontex
Conference on the European Day for Border Guards, Warsaw Poland
(pdf):


"The ongoing evaluation of Frontex activities should also
identify the limitations and shortcomings that will have to be addressed
in the medium and long term development of the Agency. When speaking
about the future of border management, one of the issues that we will
explore is the possible creation of a European System of Border
Guards."


And see:
Commissioner backs EU
'border guard corps' (euobserver, link):


"Avramopoulos, a Greek former defence minister, used strident
terms to praise the EU's new military operation, EUnavfor Med, which is
to start sinking migrant-smugglers' boats in July if it gets UN and
Libyan permission. "Europe has declared a war against smugglers", he
said. He noted that Frontex will create "profiles" of the type of vessels
being used "in order to improve their detection". He also said Frontex'
"mandate must be reinforced" so it can physically help EU countries
deport failed asylum claimants."


USING THE STATEWATCH WEBSITE


News Online:

http://www.statewatch.org/news/newsfull.htm

Whats New (all new items):

http://www.statewatch.org/whatsnew.htm

In the News:

http://www.statewatch.org/news/Newsinbrief.htm

Observatories (20):

http://www.statewatch.org/observatories.htm

Analyses (1999 - ongoing):

http://www.statewatch.org/analyses.htm

Statewatch Bulletin/Journal: Archive: Since 1991:

http://www.statewatch.org/subscriber/

Database, over 31,000 items:

http://database.statewatch.org/search.asp

Statewatch European Monitoring & Documentation Centre on Jutice
and Home Affairs in the EU:

http://www.statewatch.org/semdoc/

JHA Archive - EU Justice and Home Affairs documents from 1976
onwards:

http://www.statewatch.org/semdoc/index.php?id=1143

About Statewatch:

http://www.statewatch.org/about.htm





________________________________________________
Statewatch: Monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe
PO Box 1516, London, N16 0EW. UK
tel: +44(0)20-8802-1882; fax: +44(0)20-8880-1727
http://www.statewatch.org

To unsubscribe send an email with 'remove' in the subject line to
office@statewatch.org from the address you would like to remove

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.