Today, the #ProtectNotSurveil coalition, in which Homo Digitalis serves as a member, launches its report on the Europol Regulation and calls for the full rejection of the European Commission’s proposal.
The Europol Regulation inadvertently supports the business model of smugglers while criminalising migration.
Crucially, the Europol Regulation:
- expands Europol’s surveillance capacity beyond its mandate under the pretext of fighting ‘migrant smuggling’, giving Europol new powers “in relation to all crimes for which it is competent”;
- The EDPS has already raised concerns that the file poses significant risks to the data and privacy rights of migrants, allowing mass data collection and sharing between Member States and EU agencies with known human rights violations (Frontex), as well as third countries without any legal basis for data sharing with the EU;
- The proposal is unsafe and unsubstantiated, presented without a proper impact assessment and based on false claims that smugglers pose the greatest threat to the safety of migrants (UN report);
- Millions in EU public funds will be wasted on Europol’s new activities for a false solution to migration management that simply will not work.
A summary of our position was also published in EUobserver. The full report is available here.