Digital surveillance tech facilitates ‘arbitrary’ border abuses

The sharing of digital surveillance technologies by states looking to outsource their asylum and migration processes is contributing to human rights violations against people on the move, says United Nations special rapporteur. Known as border “externalisation”, Gehad Madi, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said outsourcing these processes forms part of a “deterrence-based” approach to migration that focuses on restricting access to protections and reducing the ability of people to cross state borders. He added that externalisation measures, while often framed as forms of cooperation or partnership, should be distinguished from cooperation aimed at facilitating safe and regular migration. This is because, in practice, externalising states looking to shift their migration control functions and responsibilities onto third countries are actively seeking to either prevent or remove migrants, “practices that may be difficult to reconcile with the principle of good faith”. While there are many facets to externalisation – including political agreements between externalising and third countries that ensure extraterritorial processing of asylum claims, introduce prevention arrival frameworks, or expedite migrant removals – one key aspect of this process is the sharing of technologies and technical expertise. “To support these measures, externalising states provide financial assistance, training, equipment and broader capacity-building to migration and border authorities in third states,” said Madi, adding that such practices are often embedded into the wider cooperation frameworks agreed between states. “Increasingly, this includes the deployment of surveillance technologies, such as biometric systems, drones and border-monitoring tools, facilitating the tracking and interception of migrants.” The use of such digital technologies in the context of externalisation, Madi noted, may facilitate the violation of human rights in a number of ways. Highlighting the use of drones as an example, Madi said these can be deployed in ways that undermine a person’s right to leave...