In their joint statement, the organizations highlighted that they have consistently expresseddeep concern over collaboration between EU member states and Libyan authorities. Assistance from the EU has facilitated the interception and forced return of tens of thousands of refugees and migrants annually to Libya, where they have faced abuses including indefinite arbitrary detention in cruel and inhumane conditions, unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence, extortion and forced labor.

The rights groups released their statement in the context of heightened cooperation between the EU and Libyan authorities. The NGO Statewatch recently leaked documents dated May 20 that detail how the EU has been collaborating with Libya’s Eastern Forces. The collaboration includes training, technical support and the development of a regional migration control center based in Benghazi. The EU has confirmed plans to establish a “Maritime Rescue Coordination Center” in Benghazi and a surveillance tower with radar in Tobruk, both cities in Eastern Libya controlled by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces. The plan appears to be modelled on a similar 2017 initiative struck with the Western-based government.

Since the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 and the death of the longtime leader Moammar Qaddafi, Libya has become a hotspot for human trafficking. The grim situation is illustrated the repeated discovery of mass graves, most recently in January. The UN has appealed to the EU on the need for life-saving search and rescue operations at sea, and the suspension of interceptions and returns to Libya, among other remedial directives.

Signatories to the joint statement include Amnesty International, EuroMed Rights, Human Rights Watch, Refugees in Libya and Sea-Watch, among others.

From JURIST, July 19. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Map: Perry-Castañeda Library

The 131-page complaint, filed under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, names among many defendants senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and State Department official John Armstrong, along with the Heritage Foundation and two online surveillance or “doxxing” groups, Canary Mission and Betar, as well as individual leaders of each organization.

According to the complaint, the Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther in October 2024. This project was a plan to identify and target non-citizen students and scholars who advocated for Palestinian rights for arrest and deportation through a “public-private partnership” with a “willing Administration” in the White House. Canary Mission and Betar would select the targets. An Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified in separate federal proceedings brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) that roughly 75% of the names of student activists his agency investigated came from Canary Mission.

Khalil, a lawful permanent resident married to a US citizen, was arrested by ICE agents on March 8, 2025. He spent 104 days in immigration detention in Louisiana, missing the birth of his first child. His lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and an injunction barring the defendants from continuing to pursue his removal.

“This case is about far more than what was done to me,” Khalil said in a press release. “It’s about a coordinated, ongoing campaign to punish, silence, and intimidate anyone who dares to speak out for Palestinian liberation.”

From JURIST, July 15. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last reports on Mahmoud Khalil and the pro-Israel doxxing operation.

Photo: Office of Rep. Jim McGovern via Wikimedia Commons

See our last report on Hong Kong’s National Security Law.

Photo: antha26/Pixabay via JURIST

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Authorities carried out raids across 21 provinces one day after a deadly clash between police and ISIS militants in Yalova, a small city south of Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara, amid heightened security ahead of New Year’s celebrations. Three police officers and six presumed ISIS militants, all Turkish nationals, were killed in the shoot-out in Yalova, sparked by a raid on suspected safe-house.

Yerlikaya stated that the subsequent nationwide raids were carried out simultaneously by provincial police units, working with the national counterterrorism and intelligence departments. The raids took place in major cities including Istanbul and Ankara, as well as in Yalova and several border and interior provinces.

A statement from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said suspects are accused of belonging to ISIS, maintaining contact with ISIS elements in conflict zones, or raising money under the guise of charity and sending it to ISIS-linked networks. It stated that some suspects were identified through analysis of digital evidence seized during earlier investigations.

Yerlikaya further said that Turkey has expanded nationwide security measures for the New Year holiday period. He emphasized that all Interior Ministry units are on heightened alert, including police, gendarmerie, coast guard, migration authorities, and emergency response teams. Authorities are to use cameras, license plate recognition systems, facial recognition systems, and body-worn cameras to support security operations. These measures will be in effect for four days from Dec. 30 to Jan. 2.

Although ISIS no longer controls large areas of territory in Syria and Iraq (both of which border Turkey), officials say the group continues to operate through small, clandestine cells. Militants have carried out several deadly attacks in Turkey in the past. Most famously, ISIS claimed responsibility for a New Year’s Eve nightclub shooting in Istanbul in the first hours of 2017 that killed 39 people.

From JURIST, Dec. 31. Used with permission. Internal links added.

Map: CIA

The records, ordered to be disclosed by a New York state court in 2022, show repeated use of facial recognition technology (FRT) against individuals engaged in everyday activity as well as political expression. According to the organizations, the disclosures detail how the NYPD relied on FRT to identify people flagged by police reports that labeled them “suspicious” for speaking a foreign language or wearing culturally distinctive clothing. Advocates say the documents demonstrate that racial and cultural profiling frequently served as the basis for surveillance.

The records also reveal that the NYPD spent more than $5 million on facial recognition technology between 2019 and 2020, and has continued to invest at least $100,000 annually. The department stopped tracking FRT accuracy in 2015 after finding error rates too high, yet continued to deploy the technology. In one instance, officers worked with the US Marshals Service to contract a facial recognition firm to surveil a private social media account, apparently in violation of departmental policy.

The documents further show the NYPD using facial recognition to monitor political expression. Officers reviewed social media posts using slang to reference Times Square on New Year’s Eve (“NYE in Times Square is da BOMB”), and conducted queries related to graffiti of a common protest slogan against the police force (abbreviated as “FTP”). The groups also cite a Dec. 31, 2019 report in which two men in Times Square were subjected to FRT after being reported for speaking a Middle Eastern language and not dancing.

Amnesty International and STOP are calling on New York City lawmakers to enact legislation banning government use of facial recognition, noting that two measures pushed by a “Ban the Scan” coalition already have majority sponsorship in the City Council. However, the groups urge the NYPD and the mayor to halt use of the technology immediately.

Amnesty International warned in 2022 of a pattern of NYPD surveillance disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities, and now charges that the use of FRT creates a chilling effect on free expression and peaceful assembly.

A UN panel stated this June that the use of artificial intelligence, such as FRT, must comply with international human rights standards. In the report, the UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights said that AI that cannot comply with human rights standards should be prohibited, and urged states to “establish human rights policies for AI deployment.”

From JURIST, Nov. 14. Used with permission.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Image: Hasbi Sahin & Tatohra/Shutterstock via Islam21c

Although winning no coverage in English-language media, labor actions are spreading across China in the current economic downturn in the People’s Republic. On Jan. 22, workers hung banners outside the headquarters of the Guilin No. 3 Construction Company in Guangxi province to demand payment of outstanding wages owed to hundreds of employees. On the same day, migrant workers in Jinan, Shandong province, raised banners in the city’s central business district demanding payment of backlogged wages by the China Railway Construction Corporation. By definition, such actions are not authorized by the state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

These recent actions were related by exiled human rights attorney Teng Biao to journalist and rights advocate Lily Xiang Li after the symposium “Non-violent Resistance, High-Tech Totalitarianism and China’s Future,” held this past weekend at the Victims of Communism Museum in  Washington DC. The account appeared on the Chinese-language service of Voice of America.

Several other worker protests over wages arrears this month—although not yet the incidents in Guilin and Jinan—appear on the Strike Map page maintained by Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin.

Teng Biao told VOA: “China’s economy is in very bad shape now, and many places cannot pay wages. News about workers and migrant laborers demanding wages in various parts of China breaks out every day.”

Despite the ongoing crackdown on dissent—especially since the 2022 “Paper Revolution” protest wave—small, spontaneous actions persist. Said Teng Biao: “Even under the current high-tech totalitarian rule of the CCP, using facial recognition, real-time monitoring of mobile phone location, et cetera, it still cannot be stopped… This is the true situation of non-violent resistance among the Chinese people.”

Citing the writings of nonviolence theorist Gene Sharp, Teng Biao said he sees the potential for a real threat to the CCP dictatorship to emerge from these seemingly uncoordinated actions: “The principle of decentralized protest is important. Even if some important figures are arrested, the movement can still continue. We must have confidence.”

Among the more significant actions we have noted in recent years have been the November 2022 worker protests at the iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, as well as that summer’s protests in Henan province over bank depositors being denied access to their savings. In 2021, there was a crackdown on efforts to organize food delivery workers in Beijing, while 2019 saw widespread protests in the automotive sector over wage arrears.

Of course we have pointed out before the irony of the Cold War framing of the symposium’s host, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The real abuses documented by the Foundation in the People’s Republic are today endemic to China’s aggressively capitalist economy.

The United States and Ireland both claim to have recently uncovered similar stations in their countries. Like the UK, they said the stations were used to monitor and harass Chinese diaspora communities. Tugenhadt noted that the stations were even known “to coerce people to return to China outside of legitimate channels.” Tugendhat said that Chinese citizens living in the UK “had sought safety and freedom” away from the Chinese Communist Party.

Tugendhat added: “Let me be clear, any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated. This is an insidious threat to our democracy and fundamental human rights.”

In response to the controversy, China has maintained that it “adheres to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, strictly observes international laws and respects the judicial sovereignty of all countries…. It is important that some from the UK side respect the facts rather than spread false accusations.”

While before Parliament, Tugendhat also reiterated his plea that both houses of the body pass the pending National Security Bill, which toughens penalties for crimes undertaken on behalf of a foreign state. Those convicted of such acts could face up to 14 years in prison.

From Jurist, June 6. Used with permission.

See our last report on accusations of Chinese extraterritoriality.

Photo of Glasgow location, within restaurant storefront: Google via The Ferret