Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

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UNITED KINGDOM / NORTHERN IRELANDNorthern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s Research:Our Hidden Borders: The UK Borders Agency Power of DetentionIn 2009, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) investigatedimmigration enforcement, 128 and “Operation Gull,”—a regular operation carried outby British immigration officers at Northern Ireland ports in which incoming passengersfrom selected flights and ferry crossings were checked to verify their immigrationstatus in the United Kingdom. The inquiry examined the interpretation of the Immigration,Nationality and Asylum Act 1999, to permit detention in prison of some asylumseekers and immigration offenders.The NIHRC investigators interviewed key immigration service managers and officersand observed “Operation Gull” immigration officers questioning passengers at BelfastCity Airport and Belfast Docks over one weekend. Investigators also conducted confidentialinterviews with detainees at the Docks and Airport, and other staff secondedto the operation from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).The investigation determined that domestic legislation gave too much discretion toindividual immigration officers to decide whom to stop and detain, and raised seriousconcerns that people were selected for questioning on the basis of racial profiling. Mostimmigration officers indicated that there was no uniform process or formula for carryingout immigration enforcement under “Operation Gull Many immigration officers thoughtthe fact that all passengers were stopped was sufficient to avoid discrimination on thegrounds of ethnic origin. When probed further on how they decided if additional questioningand investigation were required, answers became more ambiguous and immigrationofficers appeared to contradict one another in their approach.“Operation Gull” records showed that between April and June 2007, immigration officersstopped a 202 people for further enquiries. Of these, 47 were of Nigerian nationality,19 were Chinese and 15 were from the Philippines. The incoming flights that weretargeted appeared to be almost exclusively those from London airports, where thereis likely to be a higher number of passengers from minority ethnic backgrounds incomparison to airports north of London.The Commission issued recommendations to bring UKBA officials into compliance withinternational human rights standards. Specifically, it recommended that all individualsbe afforded the same level of protection and that a uniform process be applied to all.The UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission has also undertaken comparativestudies across different police forces in the United Kingdom—an approach that can detectdifferences in practices and pursue explanations for those that appear discriminatory.68 OVERSIGHT BODIES AND COMPLAINTS MECHANISMS
UNITED KINGDOMEqualities and Human Rights Commission Investigation: Stop and Think!In March 2010, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published acomprehensive review into stop and search across England and Wales. “Stop andThink!” concludes found evidence of disproportionate and possibly discriminatoryuse of stop and search by several forces. 129 The EHRC’s report uses national andlocal police data to analyze five-year trends across 42 policing areas and provide casestudies highlighting good practice.The “Stop and Think!” uses a concept of “excess stops” to describe how many morestops and searches are conducted on black and Asian people than would be the caseif they were stopped and searched at the same rate as white people. The report calculatesthat in 2007/08 across England and Wales there were 150,000 ‘excess’ stopsand searches of black people—which amounts to the majority of the 172,000 blackstops and searches in total. There were similarly 52,000 ‘excess’ stops and searchesof Asian people out of a total of 90,000.In addition to this evidence of ethnic profiling, the report found evidence from somepolice forces that fairer use of stop and search powers can go hand in hand withcrime reduction and increased public confidence in the police. (See the results ofthe Practice Oriented Package initiative in Stoke-on-Trent discussed in Chapter VI).On the basis of “Stop and Think!” the EHRC wrote to five police forces (Dorset,Leicestershire, West Midlands, Thames Valley and London) asking them to provideinformation to explain the persistently high levels of disproportionality and for informationon steps being taken to meet their obligations under the Race Relations Act(RRA). The EHRC were unsatisfied with the responses of two forces (Leicestershireand Thames Valley) and in May 2011 entered into a binding agreement with bothforces to change practices, with monitoring by the Commission over an 18 monthsperiod. 130 The agreements have not been made public, hindering local communitiesfrom monitoring progress.If possible, in-depth inquiries of the kinds described in the last two case studiesare the best way to identify and correct the issues driving ethnic profiling, more focusedand limited inquiries can also valuable analysis and support a discussion about appropriatestandards. The following case study highlights the findings of a study on Danishlegal standards setting out police powers by the Danish national equality body.REDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 69
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OPEN SOCIETY JUSTICE INITIATIVERedu
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described in this report. The case
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List of Case StudiesThe case studie
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UNITED KINGDOMAUSTRIA/BELGIUM/BULGA
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UNITED KINGDOMUNITED KINGDOMNETHERL
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The United Nations, the Council of
Page 19 and 20: I. Ethnic Profiling DefinedA Compre
Page 21 and 22: The use by the police, with no obje
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Page 25 and 26: of the persons subjected thereto sh
Page 27 and 28: The impact of ethnic profiling on c
Page 29 and 30: of the ethnic minorities disproport
Page 31 and 32: II. A Holistic Approachto Reducing
Page 33 and 34: Law enforcement agencies are accoun
Page 35 and 36: III. Legal Standards andInstitution
Page 37 and 38: Criminal and Administrative Legal R
Page 39 and 40: ImmigrationThe Equality Act covers
Page 41 and 42: FRANCEObligation of Non-Discriminat
Page 43 and 44: General principles of good practice
Page 45 and 46: UNITED KINGDOMPolice and Criminal E
Page 47 and 48: has lasted for an hour, the examini
Page 49 and 50: In order to conduct a check using a
Page 51 and 52: the person could pose a threat to p
Page 53 and 54: Improving law enforcement relations
Page 55: IRELANDPolicing Plan 2008The Garda
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Page 60 and 61: complaints commissions that include
Page 62 and 63: Civilian oversight can and should d
Page 64 and 65: In Ireland and Northern Ireland, po
Page 66 and 67: These case studies also demonstrate
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Page 72 and 73: DENMARKThe Danish Institute of Huma
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Page 76 and 77: UNITED KINGDOMThe Communities and L
Page 78 and 79: used, such as those described below
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Page 82 and 83: UNITED KINGDOMMerseyside Police Rev
Page 84 and 85: Reducing Ethnic Profiling and Impro
Page 86 and 87: As the above examples indicate, dat
Page 88 and 89: Research Approaches and Methodologi
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Page 98 and 99: UNITED KINGDOMThe Views of the Publ
Page 100 and 101: NORTHERN IRELANDBeyond the Margins:
Page 102 and 103: DENMARKMedia Reporting of Police St
Page 105 and 106: VI. Strategies for Reducing EthnicD
Page 107 and 108: people were stopped and valuable po
Page 109 and 110: only do so if the measure is determ
Page 111 and 112: Supervision and Oversight of Front-
Page 113 and 114: This is not to say that stop forms
Page 115 and 116: • Recording of self-defined ethni
Page 117 and 118: UNITED KINGDOM“Know Your Rights
Page 119 and 120: Prior to the ride-alongs, many Hung
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General principles of good practice
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UNITED KINGDOMMonitoring the Qualit
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GREECEProhibition of Racist Languag
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This handbook recommends that law e
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Where possible, training should inc
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SWEDENPolice and Youth Sharing Expe
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Training in the Counter-radicalizat
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VIII. Changing Institutional Cultur
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and Wales have used the package. Mo
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NORTHERN IRELANDCreating a More Bal
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Moroccan man. Another minority offi
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other characteristics or values. Co
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Take steps to ensure that all parts
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Law enforcement agencies must be se
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A large number of Polish migrants h
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variety of individuals with “life
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UNITED KINGDOMCommunity Stop and Se
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their needs, and problems, and hear
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to travel as far as Liverpool to ac
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The strategy includes multiple init
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The website provides an interactive
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Appendix A:Sample Stop Forms171
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REDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EU
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Fuenlabrada, Spain Stop FormREDUCIN
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West Yorkshire Police Stop ReceiptR
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Covenant rights that are especially
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• Necessity: The use of ethnic pr
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The clear risk of arbitrariness in
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The Committee considers that identi
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adopted on June 29, 2007, CRI/Counc
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European Union Fundamental Rights A
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Notes1. Rebekah Delsol, Open Societ
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13. A report of MI5’s behavioral
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38. From the email text sent by Tem
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57. R. Davis and P. Mateu-Gelabert,
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88. Gillan and Quinton v. United Ki
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Ireland). Of the total number of co
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139. For example, European Commissi
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165. Open Society Justice Initiativ
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197. These can be found at: http://
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230. More information can be found
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266. To undertake this kind of anal
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279. In Rosalind Williams, Spanish
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Ethnic profiling by police in Europ
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