The following migration-related policy recommendations are proposed civil society organisations (CSOs):
- Promote information and awareness-raising campaigns involving the public, migrants, refugees and civil society organisations on the application of OSINT technologies to migration.
- Promote the responsible use of OSINT technologies among CSOs, to counter attitudes of outright rejection of these technologies.
- Foster a knowledge ecosystem involving key actors in support of refugees and asylum seekers
- Deploy CRTERIA-type and other AI systems with OSINT capabilities to monitor status of migrants and would–be migrants inside and outside the EU migration systems.
- Maintain indirect access to EURODAC, possibly through six monthly monitoring and audit mechanisms to be informed of the real state of play in CIPPMAA and MAAP.
To implement the above recommendations the following guidelines are provided:
- The correct and successful implementation of CIPPMAA is dependent on constant dialogue between civil society organisations, the public, migrants, refugees on the application of OSINT technologies to migration. Civil society organisations are often those stakeholders which have direct experience of realities on the ground. Hence, they should actively assist in the development of any and all protocols for the use of OSINT tools tailored to the analysis of asylum seekers and refugees, including mixed migration.
- While civil society organisations occasionally join forces to advocate to the EU, the success of such actors is dependant on the information and knowledge derived amongst others from EU institutional stakeholders. Therefore, civil society actors are encouraged to “foster the knowledge ecosystem” which translates into them having well thought-out and effective communication strategies
- In order for them to carry out their work more efficiently, NGOs should deploy CRTERIA-type and other AI systems with OSINT capabilities in order to monitor status of migrants and would–be migrants inside and outside the EU migration systems. Their operational ability to do so would help them provide better advocacy as well as improved efficiency in dealing with inward and other forms of migration. The needs in the migration sector are so great that many NGOs would be hard-pressed in their efforts to provide assistance in priority areas such as food, shelter, work, integration etc. and might find it difficult to prioritise AI and other information systems.
- If implemented as currently conceived, EURODAC will result in a massive set of inter-connected and interoperable databases. The extent to which NGOs could responsibly triangulate data they receive from OSINT and other sources, wherever possible and practical may possibly depend on their non-linear, mediated access to such databases.
