In a breaking world, books are a labour of love. After 6 years,
#TheWallsHaveEyes
is (almost) here! It is a global story of border surveillance, where your body is your passport and matters of life and death are determined by algorithm.
📖May 21st
🚨📚
#ArtificialBorders
: AI, Surveillance, and Border Tech Experiments
I'm writing my first book! In the works for years, I slowly unravel global threads connecting violent border regimes, Big Tech, and real harms experienced by people on the move at the sharp edges📸
@kenyajade
Tear gas, armed force, arrests. Just over a year ago, I was in the Occupied West Bank. Now as a legal observer I’m seeing the same in NYC. Yet still so much silence from senior colleagues esp tenured faculty with job security - as well as the critical tech community? Shame!
Borders kill.
Near the Turkish border in northern Greece, outside a small village lies a cemetery of mostly unmarked graves. A resting place for those who died making the journey to Europe. Most recent tombstone from Feb ‘21 honours a young Afghan woman.
Three open graves await
2018: Start the work
2021: Find Joy (the dog)
2024:
#TheWallsHaveEyes
📖 is here!
🙏 This book is a true reflection of the deep power of community. Thank you for making my dreams come true!
Today we launch Technological Testing Grounds, our new report with
@edri
! As part of my
@mozilla
fellowship and supplementing a report by the
@UN
SR on Discrimination, this investigation highlights the real impacts of
#BorderTech
on people's lives /1
Our new report Technological Testing Grounds is out! Based on interviews with over 40 refugees and people on the move,
@mozilla
fellow
@_PMolnar
explores the human rights impacts and systemic harms of
#BorderTech
experiments
Read it here:
This is a tremendous victory years in the making! Canada’s Federal Court just ruled the US is NOT safe for
#refugees
.
Babies in cages, women not being able to claim protection for VAW, deaths in detention - just some of the violent examples of the US migration regime.
Incredible victory today for refugees! Federal Court: the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) with the United States violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Congratulations to
@AmnestyToronto
@ccrweb
@CCC_CCE
and the Applicants!
On the Greek island of
#Kos
, another “Closed Controlled Access Centre” is about to open. Earlier today, a similar new refugee camp opened on Leros island. They are part of a series of new camps on the Aegean Islands, with capacity to hold thousands, funded by the EU.🧵
This term, I had the chance to design and teach a new course on
#AI
and
#migration
at
@OsgoodeNews
@YorkUniversity
. With an amazing group of law students we explored surveillance, data colonialism, and resistance, bringing it back to the people affected.
For those interested🧵
Never in a million years could I have imagined our work would be in
@nytimes
, but here we are:
@DNBSevilla
@edri
@mozilla
Like so many, I too have crossed borders. Studying responses to migration gives us a great lens on how power works in our world ⬇️
Proud to stand with other lawyers and doctors (and dogs!) to protest
#LegalAidCuts
for refugees and immigrants. Getting banned from the Ontario Legislature was so worth it!
#SaveLegalAid
#accesstojustice
It’s finally here! 🤖✈️👩🏽⚖️
NEW REPORT by
@IHRP_UofT
and
@citizenlab
with
@lex_is
: “Bots at the Gate: a Human Rights Analysis of Automated Decision Making in Canada’s Immigration and Refugee System.”
#BotsAtTheGate
“Not a lot of difference between this camp and a prison.” A’adil*, a 25 year old from Palestine.
There are more walls going up every day. Today, inside the sprawling new refugee camp on Samos, we saw layers of barbed wire, fingerprinting, and
#BorderTech
, funded by the EU🧵
WOW!💕Thank you all so much for the huge support! It means a lot, esp when burnout, impostor syndrome, and mental health lows couple up with difficult geopolitical times and the daily trauma that the people we work with experience. Now I really just have to finish the book!🙏
🚨📚
#ArtificialBorders
: AI, Surveillance, and Border Tech Experiments
I'm writing my first book! In the works for years, I slowly unravel global threads connecting violent border regimes, Big Tech, and real harms experienced by people on the move at the sharp edges📸
@kenyajade
🚨 The
#AIAct
must protect people on the move. Along with Dr. Niovi Vavoula, we brought together 26 international experts on migration and call on
@Europarl_EN
to:
✅ban harmful AI in migration
✅expand the "high risk" category
✅apply safeguards to EU migration databases 🧵
🚨 Must read: Canada tested facial recognition tech on millions of travellers to identify people for DEPORTATION. Without public knowledge or oversight - the largest government deployment of tech, as
@tom_cardoso
and
@Colinfreeze
report for
@globeandmail
:
Barbed wires, cameras, and
#BorderTech
. These are Europe’s choices at its external borders.
📸 From the opening of the newest “closed controlled access centre” refugee camp on Kos Island, Greece on 27.11.2021🧵
It’s hard to put into words what the organized visit to
#Moria2
/
#Mavrouvoni
on
#Lesvos
was just like. Police everywhere, horrible conditions, a sad spectacle all around. Dirty standing water, garbage for days, barbed wire and fencing on the ground where children play🧵
COVID, chaos, and containment:
@kenyajade
and I are in
#Lesbos
where
#Moria
camp burned down. Thousands of people have been warehoused in a windswept new camp.
#Refugeesgr
Stay tuned for our longterm project investigating technology and migration but see👇for people to follow:
Can’t believe that
#TheWallsHaveEyes
is at
@strandbookstore
on Broadway - and in one of their central feature sections! Definitely cried when speaking to their kind store staff 😂 😭
🚨The new “closed controlled access centre” of Samos, a securitized and secluded refugee camp is officially open. According to official press conference “Samos is back to normality.” Normality which includes surveillance and geographic segregation of people seeking protection 🧵
A dream come true!
#ArtificialBorders
📚 is now represented by
@TransLitAgency
’s amazing
@oczoroadnama
+
@benglishhh
! These two breathed new life, energy, and support into a project that’s been in the works since 2018. We can’t wait to share the book with you soon! ⬇️
🚨📚
#ArtificialBorders
: AI, Surveillance, and Border Tech Experiments
I'm writing my first book! In the works for years, I slowly unravel global threads connecting violent border regimes, Big Tech, and real harms experienced by people on the move at the sharp edges📸
@kenyajade
I had the privilege of visiting the West Bank earlier this year, to see first-hand how technological oppression operates.
Thank you
@TNInstitute
for the space to reflect on violent technologies and border regimes in these dark times.
🚨 Today,
@Border_Violence
releases the Black Book of Pushbacks:
⚫️3,176 pages
⚫️1,635 testimonies impacting over 24,990 persons
⚫️16 countries
Read it here: 🧵 1/3
🚨
#BorderTech
in Greece: Back on Lesvos before EU’s
@YlvaJohansson
’s visit tomorrow to discuss building of a new camp which will supposedly include various
#surveillance
tech and motion detection algorithms (see:
@EuropeMustAct
)
The tale of three camps🧵
All over the world, people die crossing borders everyday. I was in the Arizona desert frontier during the announcement of the latest violent
#BorderTech
: military-grade ‘robo dogs.’ Thanks
@memomiller
and The Border Chronicle 🦂for the opportunity to share:
After 6 years of work across the world’s borders, the book is done! Thankful to the
@metalabharvard
and
@BKCHarvard
for the opportunity to preview the work 📖
"As more people are displaced by war, economic instability, and a warming planet, more countries are turning to AI-driven technology to “manage” the influx."
Join us TOMORROW at 5:30 PM for a discussion with
@_PMolnar
about her new book "The Walls Have Eyes."
Near a landfill on Lesvos, a new refugee camp is nearly done.
Built with EU money and part of a lucrative global Border Industrial Complex, it will be the 4th of 5 new prison-like refugee camps full of
#BorderTech
.
📸
@SchmitzFlorian_
What's the broader context? 🧵
“Would you push back Mary and Joseph?” Pope Francis
@Pontifex
visits the Greek island of
#Lesvos
and the Mavrovouni refugee camp currently housing over 2000 people.
Banners against pushbacks put up by
@lnob2020
#LeaveNoOneBehind
.
🚨A new refugee camp opened yesterday on the Greek island of Samos. Billed as a state-of-the-art facility, authorities told us it’ll be a model for other countries. Yet the people we spoke with awaiting transfer there tomorrow don’t want to move to a closed camp🧵
🚨
#BorderTech
robot dogs to be deployed by US Customs and Border Patrol.
Announced Feb 1,2022, the robot dogs will “lend a helping hand (or “paw”) with new technology that can assist with enhancing the capabilities of CBP personnel.”
(via
@ReeceJonesUH
)
Inspired by days in lockdown, Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception, edited by
@triandafyllidou
provides a collection of critical analysis on the pandemic’s wide-ranging impacts on migrants & societies across world regions.
Not quite sure what to say these days for
#WorldRefugeeDay
, other than that it is always real PEOPLE who are caught at the ever-sharpening edges of our borders.
📸- Cemetery of people who died making the dangerous crossing into Europe. Three open graves await. Evros, Greece
🚨 The EU Parliament just published its study on the use of
#AI
at European Borders:
While the paper recognizes some historical and systemic drivers of
#BorderTech
and points to risks of discrimination, profiling, and privacy, there are many gaps🧵1/7
The Greek island of Kos is a bit of a forgotten place. Similar to Samos, it also hosts a remote detention centre and will be the site of a new highly securitized camp. On Kos, I met
@amin_al_khatib
from
#Sweden
, whose wife is detained inside - he asked me to share their story 🧵
The many sides of
#Lesvos
, June 2021. Slowly stitching together the tapestry that makes up the complex ecosystem maintaining a violent border industrial complex, illegal pushbacks, surveillance, and technosolutionism at the expense of human dignity🧵
When selected for secondary security screening as usual, a curious border guard in Amsterdam started leafing through
#TheWallsHaveEyes
in my suitcase. Maybe I should have left him a copy?
(Maybe not though. He decided to swab every single copy… I guess the book is explosive!)
The violence explicitly practiced by EU’s migration machine is staggering, motivated by carceral logics and lucrative border industry. What do we have to tell policy makers who undermine years’-long work trying to highlight systemic harm if real world human stories aren’t enough?
Here are the lighthouses of Europe.
The map is even better than it might seem at first glance: the colors are the real colors, the patterns are the real patterns, and the size of the dots is the distance at which each light is visible.
.
@UTLaw
is where I went to school, met my spouse & worked for for many years as
@IHRP_UofT
director. The law school has been a huge part of my life. It's devastating to see what has has happened. But so much respect to faculty & alumni for speaking out.
Honoured to be back with
@IHRP_UofT
@UTLaw
as Interim Director.
@SamerMuscati
left huge shoes to fill and we will miss you very much!
Please follow the amazing work of our researchers
@InitialVW
and
@majorashley5
and stay tuned for many exciting updates!
Meet our team!
- Petra Molnar (
@_PMolnar
), Interim Clinic Director
- Vincent Wong (
@InitialVW
), Research Associate
- Ashley Major (
@majorashley5
), Research Associate
- Elsie Tellier (
@65PinkRoses
), Student and Communications Assistant
🚨The latest manifestation of deterrence: Greece completes a 40km wall and
#BorderTech
surveillance system with Turkey to stop people from
#Afghanistan
reaching Europe, including a “high tech automated electronic monitoring system.”
@BBCWorld
#AI
lie detectors +
#drones
+
#migration
: Very excited to have the support of
@mozilla
to look into the far-reaching impacts of migration management technologies on human lives and human rights. I'll be partnering with
@edri
as this year's
#MozillaFellow
!
🚨
#BorderTech
made in Britain:“Among the border security toys for sale are giant inflatable airships for surveilling people crossing borders… [and]databases that use machine learning to analyse…“hazards and risks.” Great piece
@LucyMayblin
@openDemocracy
CONTENT WARNING. THIS VIDEO IS HORRIFIC.
This Peter Thiel supported startup founder's pitch was drones that tase migrants.
He got $26m from VCs such as
@sama
. Forbes included him on their "30 under 30" for social impact.
Absolutely disgusting.
via
@theintercept
#NoTechForICE
Thanks for the feature
@opiniojuris
- While conversations around the
#ethics
of
#AI
are taking place, ethics do not go far enough, especially in migration technology. We need a sharper focus on oversight mechanisms grounded in fundamental human rights!
Europe has been actively sharpening its borders. New high-tech camps have sprung up on Greek Islands, financed by the EU and controlled via a vast
#BorderTech
surveillance system.
📖
@katymfallon
@lydiaemman
🧵
“They are people like us, and we do not want people freezing to death on our borders. Mothers, children, babies. We appeal for help.” Activists hold a press conference in a forest close to the
#Poland
/
#Belarus
border and appeal for humanitarian access for people stranded there.
Excellent news! Great work by the ever-amazing
@sarahchander
@ellajakubowska1
@edri
and 39 other organizations pushing for this ban on biometric mass surveillance in the EU:
“Migration is a topic that is dividing people and uniting people” - Helena, a medical volunteer.
From the Ukrainian border in 🇭🇺 🇸🇰 🇵🇱 with
@f_grillmeier
and
@katymfallon
🧵
Borders kill.
If you read one thing today, make it this incredible investigation by
@katymfallon
@guardian
and colleagues. Sidy Keita 36, from the Ivory Coast & Didier Martial Kouamou Nana, 33 from Cameroon were killed when thrown overboard off the Greek island of Samos 👇👇👇
Over 6 months w/
@LHreports
@derspiegel
@Mediapart
&
@guardian
- we looked into events over some days last Sept on Greek island of Samos, where two asylum seekers had set foot & later found dead on shores & waters near the Turkish coast. What happened?
The tale of three camps: for
@EURACTIV
I wrote about the EU’s sandbox for surveillance technologies in Greece during another visit to
#Lesvos
this week. The conditions are appalling yet the violent migration management machine keeps churning.
❗️Police has been contacted, UNHCR has been informed, a court order from
@ECHR_CEDH
and Greek Prosecutor issued, we’ve called everyone from Athens to the Evros border and back and still there are sick children at risk of being pushed back 👇👇👇
❗"Please help. The children will die here." Got this message & a video of crying, sick children this morning. Equal measure heartbreaking & infuriating.
@hellenicpolice
still has not assisted these asylum seekers on Evros islet despite orders by
@ECHR_CEDH
& Greek prosecutor 1/
“This place is like a wound in the landscape.”
On the Greek island of Lesvos, it’s been over a year now since the fire destroyed the old Moria camp, displacing thousands. Every time I visit, I take a walk through its rolling olive groves and crumbled remnants.🧵
🚨 Pushbacks are always personal. Great thread by
@g_christides
on a joint
@derspiegel
investigation with
@lydiaemman
supported by
@JosoorNet
after we learned that children were pushed back to Turkey. One boy made it, the other didn't. This story will stay with me my whole life.
There’s a sad, personal experience involved in our latest
@derspiegel
wide-ranging investigation about
#pushbacks
in Europe. One involving tormented children, overwhelmed aid actors and illegal police actions 1/👇
I have been quiet on here lately, trying to make sense of years of work comparing technologically facilitated violence at borders. One experience sits viscerally with me every day. How many more people will die? 🧵
Borders kill.
Near the Turkish border in northern Greece, outside a small village lies a cemetery of mostly unmarked graves. A resting place for those who died making the journey to Europe. Most recent tombstone from Feb ‘21 honours a young Afghan woman.
Three open graves await
🚨
#BorderTech
and
#AIAct
:
@POLITICOEurope
just leaked the draft AI Act report by the Civil Liberties & Internal Markets Committees of the EU Parliament. Tellingly, the Act does not cover the harms of technologies used in migration and at borders.
📸 high-tech refugee camp on Kos
🚨Great coverage by
@AJEnglish
with
@BarbaraGSerra
on the use of violent
#BorderTech
and the creation of a 'digital fortress' through the use of sound cannons, surveillance technologies, and increasing automation. Thanks for the
@RefugeeLawLab
on!
📚
#ArtificialBorders
chronicles conversations that connect EU frontiers with refugee camps in East Africa with the US-Mexico corridors. The book centers experiences of people interacting with high risk
#BorderTech
, exploring histories of border violence and tech experimentation.
“It’s intrusive, it’s scary and I think it’s the tip of the iceberg.”
@Malichudis
speaks to
@katymfallon
about being investigated by the Greek National Intelligence Service and the degradation of press freedom and human rights monitoring in Greece:
Right under the watchful eyes of a surveillance tower, a young man scales the wall and jumps down before our very eyes.
With one quick look over his shoulder, he sprints into the quiet border neighbourhood of Nogales and disappears 🧵
“My keys are still in my pocket.”
Calvin*, a 26 yr old doctor from Nigeria has been studying in Ukraine for 6 yrs. He fled his apartment with just a backpack and his medical diploma stuffed inside. Calvin arrived in Hungary after a harrowing 3 day journey, unsure of what’s next
(For me, this is also deeply personal. My maternal grandmother lives an hour from the Ukrainian border. She’s scared. I don’t share personal things on Twitter because it’s not a place for nuance and complexity but she asked me to. Opre Roma, may we make brighter days ahead💙💚❤️)
🚨 Last week, a group of us witnessed new
#BorderTech
on European frontiers in Greece. Surveillance and securitization are at the centre of EU's migration policy - and people like Aina are paying the price:
"If we go there, we will go crazy."
@EURACTIV
🧵
On the Greek island of
#Kos
, another “Closed Controlled Access Centre” is about to open. Earlier today, a similar new refugee camp opened on Leros island. They are part of a series of new camps on the Aegean Islands, with capacity to hold thousands, funded by the EU.🧵
Near a salt lake filled with flamingoes, the sounds of cicadas, tavernas, and cattle bells are mixed with construction noise. The tourist destination of Kos hides a forgotten camp, holding over 300 people, breaking their phone cameras and normalizing detention on arrival. 1/8 🧵
The court finds that the
#STCA
violates sec7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (right to life and liberty) due to the violent detention practices in the US.
To read the full decision:
Clear message from the EU: "We are funding electronic
#surveillance
technology, patrol vehicles, equipment for border guards and the construction of border crossing-points, but also satellite imaging and critical infrastructure. All this is to support management of the border."
1/ 🇪🇺 is "working on a proposal for provisional emergency measures [on] asylum & return, based on Art 78(3)[TFEU]."
This will "support MS to set up the right processes, to manage irregular arrivals in a swift & orderly way, in line w fundamental rights."
🚨
#BorderTech
experiments at
#DEFEA2021
: 🇬🇷🇳🇱🇺🇸🇮🇹🇨🇿 various countries presented projects like ROBORDER (“autonomous swarms of heterogenous robots for Border Surveillance”) and
#ARESIBO
(“augmented reality enriched situation awareness for Border Security”):
“If you come, we will take your children.”
Immigration detention destroys lives. It’s increasing across the world, with over 1270 sites (
@migradetention
). My brilliant collaborator
@DrSJSilverman
and I wrote a chapter for
@routledgebooks
based the community’s lived experiences.
Very excited to share our report with you next week, based on over 40 conversations with people on the move across Europe!
Supplemented by
@kenyajade
’s evocative photography highlighting the panopticon of
#BorderTech
2/2 “Treated like a piece of meat without a life, just fingerprints and eye scans.” Stay tuned for our report by
@mozilla
fellow
@_Pmolnar
on interviews with people on the move, highlighting
#BorderTech
experiments and supplementing the
@UN
SR’s report on race, tech, and borders.
The
@migration_tech
is back! Check out our 🇬🇧🇸🇾🇫🇷🇪🇸 platform for interactive
#BorderTech
maps, resources and a fellowship announcement for people-on-the-move interested in exploring migration and tech 👇👇👇
👋 The Migration and Technology Monitor is excited to announce our new platform: a living and growing archive of work at the intersection of migration and
#BorderTech
!
👉
📸
@kenyajade
and
@_PMolnar
1. Want to learn more about the MTM?🧵(1/4)
As people continue to seek safety and exercise their internationally protected right to asylum, what is playing out in Evros, one of the most violent borders between Greece-Turkey? Amazing analysis TODAY by
@lydiaemman
@SchmitzFlorian_
@dwnews
📖 🧵
NEW: Greece & EU poured millions into an automated border surveillance system aimed, in part, at "saving lives" at Evros border. Our investigation suggests Greek authorities are failing to utilize the new system for search & rescue. W/
@SchmitzFlorian_
A year ago today, the
#Moria
refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos burned down.
@kenyajade
and I were there to witness the aftermath of the fire and over the course of the year, we've been documenting a troubling intersection between surveillance, migration and
#BorderTech
🧵
Today I travelled 7000km to support my family during
#COVID19
. These are scary times, but I saw so much kindness, empathy, and generosity from people- this will help us build a better world ☀️ 🌺✨
I also saw Greenland’s beautiful glaciers! What beauty and kindness did you see?
Migrant Justice = Climate Justice.
The border industry and fossil fuel industry are deeply linked and perpetuate deep-rooted violence and marginalization.
@ConMijente
’s Jacinta Gonzales reminds us that we need a collective movement for both climate and migrant justice 🌍
“The only solution to the human crisis of displacement is to divest from policing, and the borders they protect, and invest in people instead.”
@hebagowayed
’s great piece in
@AJEnglish
is a must read:
🚨 Wonderfully comprehensive report by
@DeryaOzkul
@AFARProject
on
#BorderTech
in the EU! It’s hard to keep up with all the developments and this year-long study is an invaluable contribution to the conversation ⬇️
🚨Our groundbreaking report Smoking Guns found that European arms exports contributed to the displacement of at least 1.1 million people.
How can the EU better control arms exports and prevent further displacement?
👉Join the discussion: