Mediaboss Marketing

Feature Do the laws of physics trump mathematical complexity, or is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) nothing more than 21st-century enterprise encryption snake oil? The number of QKD news headlines that have included unhackable, uncrackable or unbreakable could certainly lead you towards the former conclusion.

However, we at The Reg are unrelenting sceptics for our sins and take all such claims with a bulk-buy bag of Saxa. What this correspondent is not, however, is a physicist nor a mathematician, let alone a quantum cryptography expert. Thankfully, I know several people who are, so I asked them the difficult questions. Here's how those conversations went.

I can tell you what QKD isn't, and that's quantum cryptography. Instead, as the name suggests, it's just the part that deals with the exchange of encryption keys.

As defined by the creators of the first Quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol, (Bennett and Brassard, 1984) it is a method to solve the problem of the need to distribute secret keys among distant Alice and Bobs in order for cryptography to work. The way QKD solves this problem is by using quantum communication. "It relies on the fact that any attempt of an adversary to wiretap the communication would, by the laws of quantum mechanics, inevitably introduce disturbances which can be detected."

Quantum security expert, mathematician and security researcher Dr Mark Carney explains there "are a few fundamental requirements for QKD to work between Alice (A) and Bob (B), these being a quantum key exchange protocol to guarantee the key exchange has a level of security, a quantum and classical channel between A and B, and the relevant hardware and control software for A and B to enact the protocol we started with."

If you are the diagrammatical type, there's a nifty if nerdy explanatory one here.

It's kind of a given that, in and of themselves, quantum key exchange protocols are primarily very secure, as Dr Carney says most are derived from either BB84 (said QKD protocol of Bennett and Brassard, 1984) or E91 (Eckert, 1991) and sometimes a mixture of the two.

"They've had a lot of scrutiny, but they are generally considered to be solid protocols," Dr Carney says, "and when you see people claiming that 'quantum key exchange is totally secure and unhackable' there are a few things that are meant: that the key length is good (at least 256 bits), the protocol can detect someone eavesdropping on the quantum channel and the entropy of the system gives unpredictable keys, and the use of quantum states to encode these means they are tamper-evident."

So, if the protocol is accepted as secure, where do the snake oil claims enter the equation? According to Dr Carney, it's in the implementation where things start to get very sticky.

"We all know that hardware, firmware, and software have bugs even the most well researched, well assessed, widely hacked pieces of tech such as the smartphone regularly has bug updates, security fixes, and emergency patches. Bug-free code is hard, and it shouldn't be considered that the control systems for QKD are any different," Carney insists.

In other words, it's all well and good having a perfected quantum protocol, but if someone can do memory analysis on A or B's systems, then your "super secure" key can get pwned. "It's monumentally naive in my view that the companies producing QKD tech don't take this head on," Dr Carney concludes. "Hiding behind 'magic quantum woo-woo security' is only going to go so far before people start realising."

Professor Rob Young, director of the Quantum Technology Centre at Lancaster University, agrees that there is a gap between an ideal QKD implementation and a real system, as putting the theory into practice isn't easy without making compromises.

QKD connections can be blocked using a DDoS attack as simple as using a pneumatic drill in the vicinity of the cable

"When you generate the states to send from the transmitter," he explains, "errors are made, and detecting them at the receiver efficiently is challenging. Security proofs typically rely on a long list of often unmet assumptions in the real world."

Then there are the hardware limitations, with most commercially implemented QKD systems using a discrete-state protocol sending single photons down low-loss fibres. "Photons can travel a surprising distance before being absorbed, but it means that the data exchange rate falls off exponentially with distance," Young says.

"Nodes in networks need to be trusted currently, as we can't practically relay or switch quantum channels without trusting the nodes. Solutions to these problems are in development, but they could be years away from commercial implementation."

This lack of quantum repeaters is a red flag, according to Duncan Jones, head of Quantum Cybersecurity at Cambridge Quantum, who warns that "trusted repeaters" are not the same thing. "In most cases this simply means a trusted box which reads the key material from one fibre cable and re-transmits it down another. This is not a quantum-safe approach and negates the security benefits of QKD."

Then there's the motorway junction conundrum. Over to Andersen Cheng, CEO at Post-Quantum, to explain. Cheng points to problems such as QKD only telling you that a person-in-the-middle attack has happened, with photons disturbed because of the interception, but not where that attack is taking place or how many attacks are happening.

"If someone is going to put a tap along your 150km high-grade clear fibre-optic cable, how are you going to locate and weed out those taps quickly?" Cheng asks.

What if an attacker locates your cable grid and cuts a cable off? Where is the contingency for redundancy to ensure no disruption? This is where the motorway junction conundrum comes in.

"QKD is like two junctions of a motorway," Cheng explains. "You know car accidents are happening because the road surface is being attacked, but you do not know how many accidents have happened or where or who the culprit is, so you cannot go and kick the offenders out and patch up the road surface."

This all comes to the fore when Anderson insists: "QKD connections can be blocked using a DDoS attack as simple as using a pneumatic drill in the vicinity of the cable."

Sally Epstein, head of Strategic Technology at Cambridge Consultants, throws a couple of pertinent questions into the "ask any QKD vendor" ring.

Quantum-safe cryptography, coupled with verifiable quantum key generation, is an excellent approach to the same problem and works perfectly today

"1. Supply chain: There is a much greater potential for well-funded bad actors to get into the supply chain. How do they manage their supply chain security?

"2. Human fallibility: There are almost certainly exploitable weaknesses in the control software, optical sub-assemblies, electronic, firmware, etc. What penetration testing has the supplier conducted in terms of software and hardware?"

Professor Young thinks that QKD currently offers little return on investment for your average enterprise. "QKD can distribute keys with provable security metrics, but current systems are expensive, slow and difficult to implement," he says.

As has already been pointed out, security proofs are generally based on ideal cases without taking the actual physical implementation into account. This, Young says, "troubles the central premise of using QKD in the first place."

However, he doesn't think that the limitations are fundamental and sees an exciting future for the technology.

Because QKD technology is still maturing, and keys can only be sent across relatively short distances using dedicated fibre-optic cables, Jones argues that "only the biggest enterprises and telcos should be spending any money on researching this technology today."

Not least, he says, because the problems QKD solves are equally well addressed through different means. "Quantum-safe cryptography, coupled with verifiable quantum key generation, is an excellent approach to the same problem and works perfectly today," Jones concludes.

Professor Andrew Lord, head of Optical Network Research at BT, has a less pessimistic outlook.

"Our trial with NCC in Bristol illustrates a client with a need to transmit data which should remain secure for many years into the future," Lord told The Reg. "QKD is attractive here because it provides security against the 'tap now, decrypt later' risk, where data could be stored and decrypted when a quantum computer becomes available."

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has gone on the record to state it does not endorse the use of QKD for any government or military application, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US has reached the same conclusion.

Jones of Cambridge Quantum says he completely agrees with the NCSC/NSA perspectives because the "first generation of quantum security technologies has failed to deliver tangible benefits for commercial or government applications."

Young goes further: "Both NCSC and NSA echo the views of all serious cryptographers with regards to QKD, and I am in complete agreement with them."

So what needs to change to make QKD solutions relevant to enterprises in the real world? Lord admits that the specialised hardware requirements of QKD does mean it won't be the best solution for all use cases, but foresees "photonic-chip based QKD ultimately bringing the price down to a point where it can be integrated into standard optical transmission equipment."

Dr Carney adds: "In closing, all this leaves us with the biggest misunderstanding about QKD vs classical key exchange; in classical key exchange the mathematics that makes Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (ECDHE) or your favourite Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) key exchange secure is distinct and independent of the physical channel (the classical channel) that is being used for the protocol.

"On a QKD system, the mathematics is in some way intrinsically, and necessarily, linked to the actual physicality of the system. This situation is unavoidable, and we would do well to design for and around it."

Here is the original post:
Quantum Key Distribution: Is it as secure as claimed and what can it offer the enterprise? - The Register

July 1, 2021 As the world enters the quantum era while politicians define the future face of a digital Europe, High Performance Computing (HPC) shape the necessary and expected post-Covid rebound. Held from June 22 to 24, 2021, the 16th Forum Teratec highlighted the major challenges facing the entire HPC sector and the European community: autonomous production of supercomputers, democratization of HPC uses, and pooling of knowledge and skills at the European level.

Democratization of HPC use across businesses

As participating companies have shown us during thisTeratecForum, supercomputers are becoming increasingly popular in several sectors even outside industry, such as medical optics for smart glasses, and archaeology for large-scale, ultra-precise surveys However, these are still unsettled uses.

Industries in all sectors see supercomputers as a possible solution to the complex problems encountered by their customers along with new products yet to be created to address them.

With growing number and diversity of users of High Performance Computing (HPC) as for data storage consequently, new challenges will appear to manufacturers and technology providers.

The increase in demand will match an increase in computer power and, consistently in energy consumption and computer costs. As President ofTeratec, DanielVerwaerde, points out: In the next few decades, the world of supercomputers must be able to offer solutions closely reaching carbon neutrality.

If they want to offer seamless interfaces without loss of performance and from a sole technical standpoint, manufacturers will need to ensure that data is managed consistently between conventional processor, accelerator, and coprocessor.

Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery, in charge of Industry, Agns Pannier-Runacherrecalled that if quantum technology is to bring the promise of a major technological breakthrough by shortening computing times by a factor of 1 billion within 5 to 10 years, the investment will of course have to be made in hardware equipment as planned by the French Quantum Plan (1.8 billion euros over five years) beside European projects, also enabling to engage accelerators and quantum computers in operation within computing centers.

As reported by DanielVerwaerde: Failing to work in these three areas simultaneously, the investments made will be all the more useless because they are so important.

Europe-wide cooperation

Whether France aims to be among leaders in these technologies and particularly in quantum computing requires cooperation on a European scale. Even if France indeed has been pursuing a proactive policy in this field since the 1960s, financial stakes for the next generations of supercomputers are such that the nation cannot act alone. Since French and European policies are in line with each other, the expertise acquired over decades can only give France a leading role.

As DanielVerwaerdereaffirmed: for supercomputers are strategic tools for our European development and our collective security, failing to be autonomous in this field would be a serious economic handicap (supercomputers are high value-added products) but also a societal one (production generates jobs, from most qualified to other many technical and manufacturing skills).

Anders Dam Jensen, Executive Director ofEuroHPC, recalled the missions of the joint European venture: to provide Europe with eight supercomputers ranked, if possible, in the top five in the world which will enable it to compete on equal footing with its competitors, and to develop a complete supply chain so that Europe can be autonomous in the production of such supercomputers. One among deadlines is to produce a European-based technology computer over the next call for tenders for the production of exaflops computers starting in 2023.

This collaboration is fully expressed in the future implementation of one interconnection between all the major European computing centers, planned after 2025. National competence centers will be referenced for each member country so that all industrial companies have access to high-performance computing, including SMEs and government agencies. In France,Teratechas been designated by the government andEuroHPCto be the national competence center, in cooperation withCerfacs(European Center for Research and Advanced Training in Scientific Computing) and GENCI (GrandEquipementNational deCalculIntensif).

We are at a turning point [] and this is where European involvement is particularly important, saidHervMouren, Director ofTeratec. And DanielVerwaerdeadded: Investing in the European project increase chances that the policy decided by Europe will be the one that France needs.

To be released, a summary of various presentations at Teratec:

A summary will soon be available to outline the richness of interventions that took place during the 16th Forum Teratec.

Workshops were also held on targeted topics: hybrid quantum computing, communicable diseases, cyber threats, satellite data for the environment and climate, autonomous systems and HPC storage.

Finally, focusing on technological challenges of high-performance simulation and the diversity of uses of HPC, the roundtables reviewed:

The next Forum Teratec 2022 will be held June 14 & 15, 2022.

Find more information on Forum 2021 here:

https://teratec.eu/forum/index.html

Source: TERATEC

Original post:
Conclusions from Forum TERATEC 2021: European Cooperation, Novel Uses of HPC - HPCwire

BEEBE, Ark. Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at the memorial of teen who died after being shot by a Lonoke County deputy.

Sharpton is just one of the speakers planned for the memorial service for Hunter Brittain being held Tuesday morning at Beebe High School.

News of Sharptons involvement comes after the Brittains family hired Devon Jacob and Benjamin Crump, two lawyers involved in high-profile civil rights cases including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Crump is among the others who will give reflections at the memorial.

Brittains family requested the famed civil rights leader to deliver the eulogy, which representatives of Sharptons say will be highlighting inter-racial support against police brutality in America.

Brittain was killed following a traffic stop in the early morning hours of June 23. The deputy involved in the case, Sergeant Michael Davis, was fired by Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley this week for a policy violation.

Deputy fired Sheriff John Staley said Sergeant Michael Davis had been issued a body camera but that it was turned off at the time of the deadly shooting, which was against the sheriffs specific directions for the department.

The memorial service will be held at the Beebe High School on Tuesday, July 6 from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Read more here:
Rev. Al Sharpton to deliver eulogy for teen killed in Lonoke Co. deputy-involved shooting - KLRT - FOX16.com

Karol Surez| Louisville Courier Journal

Jess fled his crisis-plagued birth country of Venezuela for Mexico in 2019, hoping to one day cross the border into America and a more promising future. For two years, hejealouslywatched other migrants make the crossing.

"I was seeing all the migrants crossing in front of my nose, said the 21-year-old,who didnt want to give his last name for fear of legal consequences.I thought: Why wouldn't I, if I'm so close."

Jess spent months trying to find a smuggler to help him make the dangerous journey. But he found it extremely difficult to trust anyone. More often than ever, those smugglers including the one he eventually found are tied to Mexican drug cartels.

Cartels play an increasing role in the surge of migrants fueling the most recent immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Experts say theymake big profits helping smuggle people across, and those profits comprise a significant and growing portion of their vast riches.

And some of the money passing hands from migrants to smugglers comes through U.S. banks and financial services such as Western Union.

Jaeson Jones, a retired Texas public safety captain,said theres no way to knowexactly how much cartels earn in the smuggling business.

But I can without any doubt tell you that the profits they are making today are like nothing we have seen prior," he said. "This is a major revenue stream.

Jones saidcartels treat desperate migrants like a commodity.

The majority of the 900,000 migrants who tried to cross into the United States so far this fiscal year are from Central America or Mexico, but a growing number are traveling from South American countries such as Venezuela.

Most pay thousands to get to the United States, and the cartels reap the benefits while also bolstering their power in the region.

"Criminal organizations control the border, so they control who and what crosses the border, said Gary Hale, drug policy fellow at the U.S. Mexico Center at Rice Universitys Baker Institute in Houston. And that becomes a lucrative moneymaker, a revenue generator for these cartels.

More: Drug cartels attack enemies and spread terror with weaponized drones in US, Mexico

Migrants bound for America are seeking refuge, a better life, and to escape threats, poverty and violence. Since President Joe Biden took office, the number crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has increased exponentially.

In the past, people often braved border crossings without smugglers, who are also known as coyotes or polleros.

Research by theU.S. Office of Immigration Statistics found that smuggler usage rates climbed from less than 50% during the 1970s to 95% for first-time border crossers surveyed in 2006.And the proportion has gotten higher since.

As more migrants used smugglers, cartels became more interested in the business, especially since they were already smuggling drugs across the border.

More: CJNG Mexican cartel boss' daughter, 'La Negra,' sentenced to US prison

Until recently, however, they handled the migrant-smugglingbusiness from afar, separated from the day-to-day operations of the smugglers themselves, Jones said.

Whatwe see now is a much more harmonized cycle occurring," he said. "You see that in the way that they're processing migrants before they cross into the United States putting wristbands on them, for example. They're logging everything about them, that's how they're able to keep them into debt bondage, or thepledge ofservices as security for the repayment of debt in whichthe terms of repayment are unclear and the debt holder keeps control.

Smugglers usually work for an organization or pay a fee to each ganginthe territory they use. Some coyotes don't receive direct money from migrants; in many cases, they're just workers doing their job.

Instead, experts say, the wire transfer or cash paid by those crossing the border which can range from $1,300 to $10,000, depending on the migrants nationality goes mostly to the person in charge of the trafficking business, often a cartel member. Portions of those fees alsogo to corrupt Mexican authorities and government checkpoints or "retenes," located throughout the south of Mexico.

More: California drug ring linked to Ohio officer's killing and Mexico's infamous Sinaloa Cartel

Often, Jones said, the money changing hands comes via U.S. financial institutions.

"We've seen everything from cash to the use of Western Union to wire money, he said. We've also seen the (use) of U.S. banking institutions, creating a bank account in the U.S. where funds are in the bank, and then somebody is pulling those funds out after they're given all the banking information and (a) method to do so."

Jones said its difficult for U.S. authorities to investigate such transactions. It takes time, it takes resources, it takes effort, and by the time you have done (that), they've closed that bank account and moved on to 15 others, he said.

In a statement, officials with the American Bankers Associationsaid banks try to detect and report financial red flags to law enforcement,filingmore than 2.7 million "suspicious activity reports" and 16 million "currency transaction reports" annually with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,a bureau of the U.S. treasury department.

"Banks are absolutely committed to combatting human trafficking and human smuggling and work in close coordination with law enforcement to try and identify those committing these heinous crimes," thestatement said. "These crimes can be very hard to detect, which is why banks also provide extensive training to their employees on how to spot and report unusual transactions or face-to-face customer interactions that may indicate human smuggling or other illicit activities.

Scott Apodaca, head of financial intelligence at Western Union, said his company also tries to combat human smuggling, using"very powerful and innovative technology" to help detect it. He said the company also has a financial intelligence unit thatincludes more than 550 people who hone in on emerging threats and work to prevent related transactions.

By getting into the smuggling business, the cartels have created a vicious cycle. Their main business the drug trade spurs unending violence in the border area. That violence causes more and more migrants to resort to using smugglers because they believe it will keep them safer. All the while, the cartels fortunes and power grow.

But often, smugglers dont make migrants safer. Quite the opposite.

In early February, a 911 call prompted an extensive search in the San Antonio, Texas, area after a man saying he and other 80 migrants were trapped in a tanker truck, struggling to breathe. After a long search, the tanker was never found.

Migrants have been killed or kidnapped for not paying a fee to cross a territory controlled by an organized crime group. In February, The Courier Journal traveled to Guatemala to meet the family of a young man killed with 18 other migrants whose charred bodies were found inside two vans in the town of Santa Anita in Camargo, the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, barely 50 miles from the U.S. border.

The investigation is still ongoing.

Venezuelan migrant Jess, and his sister, were willing to face the dangers for a chance to live in the United States. Millions of people from Venezuela takesuch chances.According to the United Nations'refugee agency, at least 5.6 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2005 to escape violence, insecurity, and threats, as well as a longstanding economic crisis that has led to a lack of food, medicinesand essential services.

We decided it was time to leave, Jess told The Courier Journal.

He hoped to get to Miami, Florida, where many relatives lived. Victor Hernndez, his cousin, paid $3,500 to the coyote to cross him and his sister through Ciudad Acua, a border city with Del Rio, Texas. The coyote was another Venezuelan.

When Hernandez asked for the information to make the payment, he said the coyote sent him many options for remittance companies, which transfer money from one account to another, to wire money to Mexico; as well as U.S. bank accounts.Hernandez was wary of U.S. companies because he was living in Miami with an asylum case open and knew he was paying for an illegal service.

"It was easier for me to pay with the U.S. method, but for my own protection, I made an international wire transfer to Mexico, he said. But I know people that have sent the money to those bank accounts."

Messages broadcasted to the publicin WhatsApp chat groups show the costs to cross from Venezuela to the United States. One said: "At this moment it's difficult to get into Mexico, that's why we have the safe pass to enter Mexico, $1,300, after entering Mexico you'll have to pay another $1,300 to cross through the river or $1,600 through the wall. Payment methods: wire transfers and cash only."

After leaving at 2 a.m. for the trip from Monterrey to Ciudad Acua, Mexico, Jess and his sister were driven to a remote location on a Friday afternoon until the coyote showed up and asked them to follow him.

They followed a rough road and ran many times until they found the borderline. Before crossing the Rio Granderiver, they were asked by coyotes to throw their cellphones into the water.

Jess and his sister crossed the river and were detained minutes later by the border patrol officers in U.S. territory.

Hernndez waited seven days to hear from Jess, who called from a detention center in San Antonio, Texas.

I felt relieved, Hernndez said.

After 25 "traumatic" days detained, Jess and his sister were released from the detention center, where he said he was well treated but suffered psychological damage because he felt suchuncertainty about the future.

Hes now living in Miami. His first hearing with ICE is scheduled for October 13, and he hopes to be able to stay.

"Now that I know how's life here, I'd do it again, he said. However, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Its atoughpath."

Karol Surez is a Venezuela-born journalist based out of Mexico City.

Read more:
Cartels reap growing profits in the smuggling of migrants across the US-Mexico border - Courier Journal

From water cannons in the English channel to a processing centre in Rwanda.

Over the course of the last year, the UK Home Office has been brainstorming ways to deal with the refugee crisis and it looks like almost everything is on the table.

But instead of working on how to better offer sanctuary, save lives, or successfully integrate refugees into British life, the government department led by Priti Patel has instead been plotting prison islands, containment ships, and weapons to deter migrant dinghies.

Reports have been circling since August 2020 of ideas to make the English Channel an unviable route for asylum seekers, some condemned as unlawful, reckless, and dangerous.

And on Monday, Patel was making headlines once more as news broke of her plan to set up a processing facility for asylum seekers arriving in Britain based thousands of miles away in Rwanda.

This is where we are. Despite the global refugee crisis, it is a myth to suggest that there is a refugee crisis in the UK. There are not many refugees in the UK just 0.2% of the total population as of 2019 and the UK receives far fewer asylum applications than its neighbours.

According to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, the UK received 31,752 asylum applications in the year ending September 2020, almost five times less than Germany (155,295), and much less than France (129,480) and Spain (128,520) too.

However Britain, instead of taking its fair share of refugees, has been coming up with ways to avoid responsibility. Here are some of the grotesquely inhumane ideas that the Home Office has genuinely been considering in just the last year alone.

Next week, Patel willreportedlybring aNationality and Borders Bill to parliament.

In the event such legislation is passed into law, it would allow her to set up an offshore processing centre to hold asylum seekers in Rwanda.Its thought that the processing centre will be shared with Denmark, another countryrecently condemned for being the first European country to revoke refugee status for 200 Syrians, including teenagers who had been in Denmark for many years, arguing that their war-torn home country was now safe to return to.

Australiahas implemented "offshore processing" since 2012 where refugees arriving by boat are intercepted and told to turn back, or be taken to a third country, namely Nauruor Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, while their claim for asylum is processed.

The UK plan has been described as barbaric and cowardly by Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive at Refugee Action, while the Refugee Council called it an act of cruel and brutal hostility. It was widely condemned as dystopian, with Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, saying it would be an appalling and inhumane way to treat some of the worlds most vulnerable people.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council charity, said: Offshore processing is an act of cruel and brutal hostility towards vulnerable people who through no fault of their own have had to flee war, oppression, and terror.

The idea was to buy retired ferries and convert them into floating processing centres.

The ships, moored off the English coast, would hold asylum seekers while they waited for their applications to be dealt with. Along a similar vein, another thought was that migrants could be processed on decommissioned oil platforms in the North Sea, according to the Times.

Eventually it was deemed a no go after being discussed in a Whitehall brainstorming session.

But as were about to find out, not all binned ideas find themselves banished for eternity

The Rwanda centre is merely the latest iteration of an idea that was pitched, and scrapped, between September and October 2020.

Initially, "detailed plans were drawn up to build detention camps on either Ascension Island or Saint Helena, British Overseas Territories based just off the western coast of Africa. Islands around Moldova, Morocco, and Papua New Guinea were also considered.

But there was a huge public backlash. The idea was described as entirely immoral and inhumane by campaigners. Eventually, the plan was shelved for nine months, at least.

The governments speculative plans to round up human beings and confine them to prison boats or camps on remote islands are inhumane and morally bankrupt, said Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action. Britain is better than this.

Hale added: We need a fair and effective asylum system, based on compassion, safety, and the rule of law.

A leaked document from last summer showed that the Home Office reached out to Maritime UK, a trade body, asking for tips on how to build temporary "marine fencing" in the English Channel.

The Financial Times first broke the story, reporting that they had seen an email requesting advice on how to "prevent a slow-moving, heavily overloaded migrant boat from making progress". But Maritime UK said that the idea was "not legally possible" under terms set out in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.

Apparently the barriers would be set up "on the median line" between British and French waters, with technology that was "rapidly deployable and rapidly removable."

In the news around the Rwanda processing centre, the statistics around migrants arriving in the UK on small boats approximately 5,700 in 2021 so far have been put forward as something Prime Minister Boris Johnson is actively concerned about.

As weve already established, this is a miniscule proportion of the number of asylum applications made to other countries. But in 2018, it led to former home secretary Sajid Javid declaring a major incident. It has since frequently been portrayed as an escalating emergency.

Last year, the BBC and Sky were accused of "voyeurism" after they sent reporters to chase some of these dinghies in their own boats, described by one MP as like "grotesque reality TV". To further add to the hysteria, government rhetoric has grown increasingly bombastic.

Which led to this idea: water cannons in the English Channel to create actual waves that might repel migrant boats before they can land in the UK. Seriously.

Last but not least, there was the whole warship debacle.

In August 2020, Patel requested support from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to prevent migrants crossing the English Channel, and appointed an ex-royal marine as a "clandestine channel threat commander."

Among the critics of the idea to send in the military to deal with migrants were people within the MoD itself, with one source reportedly calling it a completely inappropriate and disproportionate approach to take."

In the end, navy ships werent called in. But judging by the return of the Rwanda processing centre, it might be naive to believe the idea may never come back.

View original post here:
6 'Dystopian' Ideas the UK Has Actually Considered to Stop Refugee Boats Arriving - Global Citizen