UK under scrutiny for exporting surveillance equipment to Philippines

Labour MP and member of the select committee on arms export controls, Lloyd Russell-Moyle has criticised the UK government for exporting surveillance equipment to the Philippines.

Following his inauguration in May 2016, Philippines’ president Rodrigo Duterte has waged a violent war on drugs, alleged to have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. Figures from Campaign Against the Arms Trade (‘CAAT’) show that since then the UK has granted arms export licences to the Philippines worth approximately £14m, for items including information security equipment, imaging cameras and information security software. The Guardian newspaper claims that this includes IMSI-Catchers, which are used to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, and surveillance tools to monitor internet activity.

‘My office has found that UK licensed spyware to the government of President Duterte weeks after he was inaugurated and vowed publicly to kill all the drug addicts in the Philippines,’ Russell-Moyle tweeted.  ‘Another case of Tories ignoring human rights provisions in UK arms export law.’

The UK government considers arms licence applications on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, one of which is whether there is a ‘clear risk’ that the items might be ‘used for internal repression’ or ‘in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law’. Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court in The Hague launched an initial inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity by Duterte.

Concerns about the export of so-called ‘spyware’ are at the heart of a proposed ‘recast’ of the EU dual-use export control regime – which would see the introduction of a ‘human security’ criterion – and a tightening of the control of exports of technology that could be used for surveillance purposes.

Russell-Moyle’s criticism comes at a time when there is unease in the EU over the uneven application of arms export control policy across the bloc. In September, mTop of Formembers of the European Parliament  voted to tighten EU arms export control, calling for a crackdown on Member States which violate EU arms export control policy.