The following migration-related policy recommendations are proposed for national parliaments in EU Member States:
- Protect fundamental rights by fostering active debates on national laws seeking to protect the fundamental rights of migrants.
- Foster active and constructive debates on the legislative discussions required for the package of legal reforms necessitated by CIPPMAA, also trying to employ a holistic approach to the problem, by reflecting on potential secondary effects such as the use of technologies on migrants’ behaviours.
- Establish a clear legal basis with explicit purposes whereby use of OSINT in the migration sector would be clearly permissible for purposes of detection, investigation, prevention and prosecution of crime in the context of national security, law enforcement, defence.
- Establish ad hoc monitoring mechanism within an existing or new parliamentary committee carrying out regular evaluation of the impact of CIPPMAA and MAAP on fundamental rights of migrants.
To implement the above recommendations the following guidelines are provided:
- Although much of the law making has been removed from the hands of national parliaments in those instances regulated directly by EU-level regulations, there still remain many instances where national parliaments need to intervene through legislation at the national level. This is especially so in matters concerning national security, defence and other areas reserved to EU member states or those matters currently regulated in detail by national legislation.
- The monitoring of the presence and activities of migrants especially where surveillance dual-use (national security as well as law enforcement) technologies may be deployed remains one of the key areas where national parliaments will have the primary responsibility in terms of revision of existing legislation or the formulation of new laws. Hence such legislation should not be given careful considerations, with the consultation of all relevant stakeholders. .
- Given the dearth of OSINT-specific legislation around Europe, national parliaments should help their countries comply with their existing obligations under Convention 108 of the Council of Europe by providing a clear legal basis with explicit purposes whereby use of OSINT in the migration sector would be clearly permissible for purposes of detection, investigation, prevention and prosecution of crime in the context of national security, law enforcement, defence.
- Where standing Parliamentary Committees on security and intelligence exist, these should be tasked with regular review of the impact of national legislation and its deployment on migration and the fundamental human rights of migrants. Where such Committees reporting to Parliament do not yet exist, they should be created and incorporated into national oversight structures for intelligence and national security.
