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Content warning: This briefing may contain references and links to descriptions of abuse, torture, and racial and gendered violence at borders. 

AT A GLANCE

• Central Mediterranean: On 11 May, the EU-financed Libyan Coast Guard opened fire on civilian rescue ship Sea Watch 5, carrying 90 survivors of distress at sea. If it sounds like you’ve read this sentence before you probably have - perhaps from the Ocean Viking attack last August, or 70+ other incidents in recent years. Crews’ objections to being shot at by people funded through their taxes have thus met deaf ears, with a European Commission which insists (somehow) that financing Libyan forces is necessary to improve the situation. A spokesperson even pointed out that frustrated rescuers should perhaps consider all the times they didn’t get shot at. The only person held to account for the latest attack so far is the rescue captain, who ended the ordeal by facing a criminal investigation ordered by Italy (we’re sure this has absolutely nothing to do with proximity to an Italian election year.) The death toll in the Central Med this year passed 1,000 in April. Increasing Libyan violence also seems to have caused German maritime authorities to raise the risk level for German civilian shipping, which doesn’t seem to be an outcome you’d want from a plan to make the border more secure. 

• US: Brayan Rayo Garzan, a 26-year-old Colombian man was found dead in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody last month after guards ignored his pleas to call his mother and delayed his request for mental health treatment, according to records. Days later the death of Denny Adan Gonzalez, a 33-year-old Cuban man, brought the number of reported ICE custody deaths to 18 this year, maintaining the grim death ratio of one a week identified by researcher Austin Kocher. ICE detainees are dying by suicide at an 'alarming' rate, an AP investigation has found, while internal ICE records show widespread use of force in detention, including physical violence and the use of chemical agents. Protesters showing solidarity with detainees on hunger strike over poor conditions were also attacked by police at a detention centre in New Jersey, with US Senator Andy Kim among those pepper-sprayed. The machinery of violence shows no signs of slowing down. 

• The AI Resist List launched this month,  a collective of researchers, journalists, and critical scholars imagining radical alternatives to the rise of authoritarian tech.

BORDER EXTERNALISATION

• EU/ World: The European Commission intends to invite Taliban officials to Brussels in the near future for talks on deporting people to Afghanistan, despite a strong intervention from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk. 

• EU officials have visited Syria attempting to accelerate deportations, whilst the Netherlands is steaming ahead with plans for offshore deportation centres.  Despite all the enthusiasm for Trumpian mass deportations, EU legislation on the topic seems to be delayed again (colour us shocked.) 

• Statewatch has released European Commission documents that list the dizzying array of projects the bloc is pursuing in Africa to control and restrict human movement. 

• US / Latin America: The US has deported thousands of Cubans and Venezuelans to danger in Mexico, Human Rights Watch says. Its blockade and threatened military intervention against Cuba is also a potential trigger of increased displacement (more great work from a US government which supposedly wants less migration) - prompting over 30 members of Congress to urge the government to end its use of the Guantánamo Bay naval base for immigrant detention and rule out military action in Cuba. 

• The US’ externalisation programmes continue apace, albeit still not involving significant numbers of deportees. The Dominican Republic now expects to receive thirty people deported from the US each month, Paraguay has recently received deportees (including one of their own citizens), and St Kitts has received multiple Caribbean nationals, including from Jamaica. 

• US/ Congo: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring back a Colombian woman who was wrongly deported to Congo. 

• Australia: The government’s AUS$2.5bn deal with Nauru, under which hundreds of people will be sent to the small island state, is facing another legal challenge prompted by an alleged child abuse survivor.

DETENTION, DEPORTATION AND BORDER VIOLENCE

• Chile: The Trump tribute acts continue to multiply, with new  far-right President José Antonio Kast breaking ground on a border wall with Peru. A migration row in Chile was key to propelling Kast to power; and the incident is a further sign of the Global North’s migration control tactics spreading southward, with the same cocktail of political and business interests involved. 

• US: One of the 100+ sitting immigration judges sacked by the Trump administration has given an interview on the chaos inside the system caused by the deportation agenda. A federal judge has also accused the Trump administration of threatening her safety by posting what she says is a “patently false” allegation that she knowingly released an ICE detainee who was wanted for murder. 

• Migration analyst and former US naval serviceman Austin Kocher addresses the US’ deportation of veterans and his own relationship to the military in a wide-ranging essay.

• Norway/ Greece: The court of Tromsø has rejected a request by Greece to extradite human rights monitor Tommy Olsen, who is facing prosecution in Greece for facing illegal entry, a charge he denies and humanitarians view as the latest of many attempts to criminalise solidarity. 

• France: Nearly 16,500 people were detained in administrative detention centers (CRA) in metropolitan France in 2025, but more than 60 percent were released "mainly following court decisions," according to a new report. French politicians presumably think this isn’t messy enough yet, as a new bill adopted by the National Assembly allows for the detention of undocumented people deemed “dangerous” for up to 210 days. 

• Egypt: Amid poverty, racism and forced disappearances, Sudanese war refugees say they feel forced to leave Egypt for Europe, many along Mediterranean migration routes. It’s an indication that European backing of a violent Egyptian migration regime intended to prevent onward travel to Europe isn’t exactly going as planned.

• UK: London plans to extend its embattled “one in one out” scheme with France aimed at deterring people from crossing the Channel in small boats. The news comes as an Eritrean man’s deportation under the scheme was cancelled after a suicide attempt.

• UAE/ Pakistan: Pakistani citizens allege a pattern of arbitrary detention and deportation from the UAE amid a lack of formal process and rapid removals.

• Canada: As Ottawa tightens its asylum rules, refugees reuniting with family members say they were handed to US ICE and jailed for months. 

• EU: Ahead of a review of its mandate, EU border agency Frontex has used a review of national border force capacities to make the case for its own role.

SURVEILLANCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INDUSTRY

• UK: Hard-right Reform UK’s proposed "Deportation Command” would integrate NHS, police and financial data into a single surveillance database. The Nerve has a report on how the Labour government’s embrace of Big Tech is paving the way for Reform’s ICE impersonation. Palantir’s penetration of the British state - bolstered by a recent hiring spree of ex-civil servants - is cited as an example. 

• However, Palantir’s attempts to control - well, everything - are met with increasing backlash. NHS staff are trying to block plans to provide the firm with what they argue would be unfettered access to patient data as questions are raised around the role of consultants in the process, whilst London mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked a planned police deal with Palantir, its its largest incursion attempt yet into British policing. 

• Protesters disrupted the AGM of insurer Aviva, condemning the firm for underwriting and investing in firms involved in border violence, climate destruction and war, including Serco, Saudi Aramco and Elbit Systems. Meanwhile campaigners called on five airline companies to stop facilitating deportations. 

• Germany: Germany's spooks have also reportedly delivered a snub to Palantir, with intelligence services procuring data analysis systems from French contractors instead.  

• Greece: European prosecutors are looking into how Greece used EU funds to construct migration camps, officials have said. Two projects were reportedly carried out without a tender process and awarded to private companies with inflated costing.

• EU: According to a new report, 99 percent of operational data belonging to EU police agency Europol (which has a rising role in migration deterrence) is being stored and processed without basic data protection and security safeguards.

• US: If anyone thought ICE didn’t have quite enough mass spying toys yet, the agency is set to give Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents nationwide access to a private iris biometric database containing more than five million records.

• Revolving door klaxon: ICE’s new acting director comes in from private prison firm GEO Group, who you may know from assorted allegations of abuse, use of forced labour and “dark money” donations.

• Canada: Recent cases reveal that governments’ experimentation with generative AI and algorithmic  processes in delivering immigration and welfare programmes is resulting in decisions based on made-up data. These aren’t just bad AI-generated decisions — they’re potentially unlawful ones. 

• Australia: An ICE-linked private prisons firm has been blamed for (and hold on, this will shock you) catastrophic security failures in Australia’s immigration detention network, and a less-than-transparent relationship to the government. 

• World: A new piece of market analysis breathlessly writes that the  "Border Surveillance System Market is entering a new era of technological transformation as nations worldwide intensify investments… the market is projected to grow to USD 68.9 billion by 2034, registering a steady CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period." So that’s something to look forward to, then. 

• If you haven’t yet had your fill of everyday dystopia, The Verge has a report on the surveillance tools being hawked at this year’s Border Security Expo.

MIGRATION POLICY AND POLITICS

• Indonesia: Following a long campaign, domestic workers have been legally classified as workers. This is seen by some to set an example across the region for challenging exploitative labour systems that often entwine with border regimes to immiserate migrant workers. China is meanwhile easing its restrictions on internal labour migration. 

• Latin America: Multiple countries signed on to the Bogotá Declaration last month, which is aimed at strengthening circular migration mechanisms, promoting skills recognition and training, and boosting a regional agenda focused on “social justice and inclusive integration,” per a press release.

• Europe: European governments have agreed a political reinterpretation of how the European Convention on Human Rights applies in migration cases, following a bid led by the UK’s Keir Starmer and Denmark’s Mette Fredriksen to water down protections. 

• UK: Local elections saw Labour lose votes rightwards to a Reform surge and leftwards to the Greens; in a campaign which saw Reform propose to punish Green voters by housing immigration deportation camps in their seats. Dismal results for the government laid the ground for a critical by-election seen as a potential step toward Keir Starmer’s replacement with Labour’s Manchester mayor Andy Burnham - who has so far been circumspect about his migration stance as the issue continues to hog headlines. Reform, meanwhile, seems to have lost track of who it wants to deport, a row which the new, further-Right Elon Musk-backed Restore party is trying to exploit. Amidst all this, UK net migration has drastically fallen. 

• US: New political research has shown - again - that “tough on migration” messaging does not move voters toward Democrats.  

• France: The Dunkirk prosecutor’s office in northern France is investigating members of the French Navy involved in Channel rescue operations for "public insults based on origin, ethnicity, nationality, race, or region" and "endangering the lives of others.” 

• Ireland: A Dublin parliamentary contest has become a platform for Gerry Hutch, alleged to be a prominent organised crime figure, to use extreme anti-migrant rhetoric in his bid for election. 

• Cyprus: The Cypriot parliament is fragmented following Sunday’s national elections, with the anti-migration far right gaining ground and anti-establishment newcomers emerging. 

• Germany: Sociologist and legal scholar Susann Prätor has shared a careful view on nationality-based crime statistics as the country is due to announce new figures purporting to show links between immigration and crime.  

• Lebanon/Palestine: A lack of statehood is a key factor holding back Palestinian refugees in Lebanon from accessing support, along with barriers to aid access and funding cuts, a UN official has said. 

• Australia: Critics have hit back at misleading claims by Australian opposition leader Angus Taylor that migration is a net drain on the country. 

• US: Trump’s “refugee resettlement programme”, which is totally not trolling, is set to admit a further 10,000 white South Africans, who Washington claims face persecution.

CLIMATE, NATURE, AND THE FUTURE OF MIGRATION

• World: The newest International Organization for Migration (IOM) World Migration Report shows 83 million internally displaced, the highest figure ever recorded, amid instability brought by conflict, climate change and technological change. 

• CBC’s environmental newsletter examines the connection between climate change and migration crackdowns. 

• The April issue of Race & Class leads with a critique by academics of the supposedly green, empowering, and pro-women’s safety UNHCR Refugee Environmental Protection (REP) Fund’s project to use refugee labour in the Global South to generate carbon credits to be traded on global markets.

• Leaving a climate-vulnerable place can potentially lead to better health outcomes for individuals, but only under the right circumstances, says economist and researcher Ilse Ruyssen. 

• As the climate changes, animals face a crisis of spatial survival; a new study looks at how environmental changes are shifting the world map of nonhuman migration. 

• US: US deportation flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions, a Guardian investigation shows. 

• The NYT has looked at the perils and pitfalls of the relocation of a Louisiana town forced by climate risks, which was once held up as a model of effective policy. 

• Greece: “Everyone has gone mad after the storm. It’s a form of collective PTSD,” says one Greek villager faced with relocation, in a Euronews report on climate displacement in the Mediterranean country.