Since the 2015 migration management crisis, migration control operations have been increasingly outsourced to private companies in several areas, including those related to deportations and removals, housing, transport, detention of asylum seekers, the security of reception and processing centres across Europe and overseas, as well as the procurement of digital technologies for entry/exit systems at the border.
In light of this changing landscape, the European Policy Centre and the Nottingham University’s Human Rights Law Centre hosted an expert workshop to examine the policy and legal implications of current forms of privatisation in the context of migration control.
Speakers included: Marie De Somer, Head of the Migration and Diversity Programme, European Policy Centre, Daria Davitti, Head of HRLC’s Forced Migration Unit, University of Nottingham, Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, Policy analyst, European Policy Centre, Frank McNamara, Economic and Social Research Institute, Estela Casajuana, Researcher, Profundo, Matthias Leese, Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich, Jean-Pierre Gauci, Associate Senior Research Fellow, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Juan Santos Vara, Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair in EU External Action, University of Salamanca, Federica Infantino, Senior lecturer, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Michael Flynn , Executive, Director, Global Detention Project, Gabrielle Holly, Senior Associate, Omnia Strategy LLP, Sorcha MacLeod, Member of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, Tara Van Ho, Lecturer, University of Essex.