1/4
In spite of extensive reports of human rights violations against people on the move, @frontex.bsky.social is forging ahead with a plan to deploy “tactical drones” at the Bulgaria-Turkey border.
borderviolence.eu/reports/stat...
Thank you to @cptlesvos.bsky.social for featuring our research into surveillance technologies in the Evros region in their latest report.
Read our report by our coordinator Lena Karamanidou here: borderviolence.eu/reports/surv...
I was actually bought up in a world where this question didn’t even exist. It’s only in the last 10 years it’s become a national obsession.
"The violence continues. And it has even increased in areas where @frontex.bsky.social is active," our Research Coordinator Lena Karamanidou told Swiss magazine @magazindaslamm.bsky.social
Read part 1 of this 4-part series on Swiss involvement in Frontex post-referendum: daslamm.ch/das-geheime-...
Newly leaked EU document reveals plans for deportation camps - designed to evade judicial scrutiny.
EU governments are pushing to set up deportation camps in non-EU countries — and to do so in a way that avoids judicial scrutiny.
These so-called “return hubs” would hold people who have received a final deportation order, even if they cannot be sent to their country of origin.
1/5
On 12 January, we made a submission to the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ahead of the visit of its Working Group on the use of mercenaries to Cyprus.
borderviolence.eu/reports/subm...
It's more like media stopped caring about #Evros, since there's no border spectacle to attract their attention - beyond the '5 years from 2020! Look how we defended the border against unarmed people!' type of coverage peddled on Greek TV. 2/
Beyond the fiction that border crossings in #Evros have been reduced to zero, this is the reality: another road accident with many people injured. Another wall have been (nearly) built, crossings might be fewer but they haven't stopped, people are still harmed. 1/
www.evros-news.gr/2025/05/10/s...
The Serbian government must prevent the use of sound devices for crowd control, says the European Court of #HumanRights👇
Full press release via hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre-press?i=...
#ECHR
Political parties are using #AIGeneratedImages to push racist, anti-migrant agendas. Italy’s #Lega party has published at least 17 social media posts featuring fake, AI generated images. These images depict violent scenes allegedly involving migrants - but the visuals are entirely fabricated.
With @giorgoschristides.bsky.social, we wrote about the dozens of young men under 21 who fled Sudan & are now facing (what their lawyers say are) draconian charges under Greek anti-smuggling legislation. Many have already been handed lengthy sentences in Greece... www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
#Frontex was previously barred from monitoring social media. Now, under #EUROSUR, the agency wants to use it — claiming it’s for saving lives at sea. An impact assessment will explore if personal data use can be justified for this #SOCMINT:
www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume...
Virginia Giuffre, who was the first of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims to go public — accusing Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of recruiting her to join their sex trafficking ring — and who sued Prince Andrew for sexual assault, died on Friday. She was 41.
Sudan situation ‘absolutely devastating’ as UN ramps up food. Half of its population is facing extreme hunger, and nearly five million children and breastfeeding mothers are severely malnourished. news.un.org/en/story/202...
The intellectual trap here is seeing the world only as competing states/empires, forcing a false choice of which to support.
The anarchist perspective offers a way out: solidarity with people over states. International solidarity with people resisting ALL forms of oppression, as Al-Shami argued.
My article on “layered surveillance” and creative ways activists maneuvered it in the 2021 #SaveSheikhJarrah movement is now out in @ijoc-usc.bsky.social
This was a great collab with Dana Hasan and Amal Nazzal @ Birzeit university, so please check their other work as well!
ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
This is really important. Do NOT use the AI summaries at the top of google searches. Ignore them. This is especially important if you don't have any prior knowledge about the topic, but also a good general rule.
Search sources, scrutinize them carefully and double-check with other sources.
“While women’s rights decline around the globe, the ever-precarious position of women is overshadowed by spectacles such as this spaceflight, as seen just two days later as the UK Supreme Court ruled to exclude trans women from the legal definition of womanhood.”
The first step towards improvement is acceptance. Acceptance that Frontex has a serious transparency problem.
In the past 6 months alone, @frontex.bsky.social has twice flouted its obligations under EU transparency rules, according to the @ombudsman.europa.eu.
Site Profile: The Thessaloniki General Police Directorate (Megaro)
➡️Located in the western side of Thessaloniki
➡️Last visit by the CPT: 2019
➡️Length of detention in testimonies: 8-46 days
Site profile: detentionlandscapes.uwazi.io/en/entity/5w...
Belgian police want to predict crime—but what they’re doing is reinforcing discrimination.
A new report from Statewatch, Ligue des droits humains and Liga voor Mensenrechten underscores the risks of these ‘predictive’ policing systems.
The wall in Bethlehem, West Bank at sunset, with shadow of surveillance tower. Credit: Florian Schmitz
Israel is using state-of-the-art technology against Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also against residents in the West Bank.
2024/25 MTM fellow and Palestinian researcher @monashtaya.bsky.social talks with us about life under high tech occupation
➡️ www.migrationtechmonitor.com/blog/monas-b...
Israeli strikes kill 14 in Gaza and destroy heavy equipment needed to clear rubble | AP News apnews.com/article/isra...
Do Customs and Border Protection officials have the authority to search your phone at the border? Short answer? Yes.
Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.
1/2
🟠BVMN’s February report is now online.
borderviolence.eu/reports/balk...
With contributions from our member organisations, partners and working groups, this edition covers, among other things:
❌ Arrival of the "Schengen bus" and other surveillance equipment to Serbia
Site Profile: The Special Ηolding Facility of the Thessaloniki Aliens Police Directorate (Metagogon)
➡️Located in an old factory warehouse building
➡️Last visit by the CPT: 2016
➡️Average length of detention: 36 days
Site profile: detentionlandscapes.uwazi.io/en/entity/av...
Widespread surveillance leads to abuses of power, discrimination, and the stifling of freedom of expression, says Petra Molnar. Historically marginalized communities will bear the disproportionate brunt of this type of social media surveillance, she writes.
@frontex.bsky.social has one month left to respond to the @ombudsman.europa.eu's finding of maladministration, following a complaint I had filed. Frontex had refused to disclose two key opinions issued by its Fundamental Rights Officer last year.
www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/recommend...
📢 Report: Greece’s Illegal Use of Police Stations to Detain Migrants
Today, @mobileinfoteam.bsky.social, @bordercrim.bsky.social and the Border Violence Monitoring Network publish a new report on the detention of migrants in police stations in Greece
➡️ www.mobileinfoteam.org/police-stati...
We should all be pro trans and pro woman. The Labour party taking this line is deep shit time.