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Violent protesters face EU travel ban

 

Alan Travis and Ian Black in Brussels

Tuesday December 4, 2001

The Guardian

 

A list of violent demonstrators could be used to stop them travelling within

Europe under plans being discussed by the European Union council of

ministers.

The proposal to bar " potentially dangerous persons " who are " notoriously

known by police forces " follows violent clashes between police and

anti-globalisation demonstrators at Gothenburg and Genoa earlier this year.

 

The new dedicated database covering protesters with a record of violence or

public disorder is part of a planned extension of the Schengen information

system based in Strasbourg which already holds files on 1.3m individuals,

mainly for immigration purposes, and can be accessed from 50,000 computer

terminals around Europe.

 

Ministers also plan to extend the Schengen database to include all

" foreigners " - third country nationals - such as illegal immigrants and

rejected asylum seekers who have failed to leave the EU within " the

prescribed time frame " .

 

The anti-protest proposal has been put forward by Belgium, which currently

holds the EU presidency. It would allow EU countries to bar an individual

from going to a specific event on the grounds that such a ban would reduce

the risk of public disorder.

 

The idea will be discussed by justice and home affairs ministers, including

the home secretary, David Blunkett, later this week. They are also expected

to agree a wider definition of " terrorism " that includes protests and

protesters.

 

The move extends to violent demonstrators the current powers of EU countries

to ban known football hooligans from travelling to a specific match or

tournament abroad if there is evidence that they are out to cause trouble

again.

 

The Belgian paper says the list could work by " alerts " being flagged on the

Schengen information system on any person who is " notoriously known by the

police forces for having committed recognised facts of public order

disturbance " when they are moving alone or in a group to a specific event, if

there is evidence they are out to " organise, cause, participate in or foment

trouble with the aim of threatening public order or security " .

 

The kind of events from which they are to be barred is drawn extremely

widely, to include sporting, cultural, political and social occasions.

 

Statewatch, the European civil liberties monitoring group, said those whose

details are put on the Schengen database are not told that their names are on

the record until they attempt to travel. It cited the case of two football

fans wrongly entered on the list of " suspected " hooligans who found it took

years to get their names removed.

 

A Home Office spokeswoman said the British government generally supported an

extension of Schengen to combat organised crime and terrorism and stressed

that the proposal would not affect the right to peaceful protest by trade

union activists or anti-globalisation demonstrators.

 

" Lawful protest is fine. We do not want to catch trade union activists or

peaceful anti-globalisation protesters, " she said.

 

Finland and Sweden are opposed to the idea, as is non-EU member Norway, which

does participate in Schengen. Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch, said: " Now

we have the frightening prospect that details of suspected terrorists and

dissenters will be held by the Schengen information system on one

centralised, computerised EU-wide database and all 'foreigners' in the EU

held on another - and both are to be the subject of 'targeted action and/or

surveillance'. "

 

EU ministers are starting their preparations on the scheme as up to 30,000

anti-globalisation protesters, including many from Britain, are organising to

take part in a march for global justice in Brussels in 10 days' time - the

first major anti-globalisation protest since September 11.