Context

Since the Arab Spring in 2011, there has been a growing concern that oppressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are using surveillance technologies to target human rights activists and silence opposition voices. Several reports by civil society, researchers and investigative journalists have uncovered evidence of private companies exporting surveillance technologies from Europe and Israel to MENA countries with a track record of human rights violations. Yet, the sale of this highly invasive technology that enables spying and targeted surveillance remains wildly profitable and unregulated.

A similar trend can be seen in the context of border management and migration in recent years, with increasingly authoritarian governments in MENA introducing policies or participating in programmes with European countries aimed at curbing migration in ways that increase the vulnerability of migrants and refugees. Conflict, climate change, and economic instability continue to be the driving forces behind the increased number of forcibly displaced people. The increased use of autonomous border security systems such as drones, facial recognition, and biometric systems poses new threats to human rights. There is already evidence that they push migrants to take more dangerous routes but there is also concern that a gradual trend toward weaponised migration will endanger migrants’ lives even further.

Our own data, research from partners on the ground, and recent media reporting have also shown that vurnable communities as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the MENA region remains at high risk of serious human rights abuses. This ranges from the deployment of drones to monitor migrants crossing the Mediterranean or send them to detention centers, mass collection of biometric data in refugee camps which has direct implications for the security, privacy, and dignity of refugees, to the use of facial recognition for racial profiling of vulnerable communities that leads to entrenched inequalities.

Outreach

In July 2022, we approached 24 companies in the military, security, and high-tech sectors and invited them to disclose information in response to the following questions:

1. a. Does your company provide surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment to government clients in the Middle East and North Africa in the context of migration and/or border control? If so, please specify which products and which Middle Eastern & North African countries.
   b. How many surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment have been distributed by your company at border crossings, checkpoints or refugee camps in the past 5-10 years?
   c. Are you willing to provide BHRRC with updated lists of your surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment, as well as your government clients and border agencies in the Middle East & North Africa region, in the future?
2. a. Is your company or subsidiary carrying out due diligence to identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights risks before supplying governments or border agencies in the Middle East and North Africa region with surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment? If so, please outline the risks identified.
   b. Does your company or subsidiary conduct any consultations with affected communities (such as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers) and human defenders as part of your due diligence process?
   c. Is your company or subsidiary taking any other actions to ensure that the surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment that you supply or distribute on border crossings, checkpoints, or in refugee camps are not causing or contributing to adverse impacts on the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (e.g., discrimination, detention, mistreatment, mass collection of data, tracking their movement without rescuing them, etc.)? If yes, could you share these actions with BHRRC?
   d. Does your company or subsidiary have a grievance mechanism in place for people to raise concerns or complaints?
   e. Does your company have a human rights policy or internal process governing your provision of surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment to government clients or border agencies in the context of migration?
3. Is your company or subsidiary planning to stop engaging in the sale or provision of a range of surveillance solutions, products, services or equipment to Middle Eastern & North African countries with a track record of human rights violations?

Responses from Airbus, Cellebrite, G4S, Thales Group and IrisGuard can be read in full below.

While Safran Group, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems, Soverign Global Solutions Ltd, Elettronica Mangione (Elman), Nexa Technologies, Dassault Aviation, AnyVision, TSG IT Advanced Systems, VideoTec, Evron Systems Ltd, Dahua Technology, Sony Corporation, GEM Security Services Ltd, Leonardo, Cisco, Indra, IDEMIA, BAE Systems have not responded.