No to EU law enabling home raids, policing of public services and racial profiling

The EU is currently negotiating a Deportation (“Return”) Regulation to expand and normalise immigration raids and surveillance measures across our communities. They want to oblige Member States to “detect” undocumented people – turning everyday spaces, public services, and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement. In the US, this has already led to a public health crisis where undocumented people avoid accessing basic medical care for fear of being reported or kidnapped. 

In practice, the European Commission and EU Member States’ proposed detection measures manifest as: 

• Police raids in private homes, enabling authorities to enter living spaces to search for undocumented migrants – without a judicial mandate – as well as offices and shelters run by humanitarian organisations. 

• Police raids in public spaces – such France’s deployment of 4 000 police agents in June 2025 to carry out sweeping checks across bus and train stations, with the aim to arrest and detain undocumented people, or Belgium’s introduction of internal border checks on highways, stations and airports. 

• Surveillance and technology – such as the collection of people’s personal data in bulk and exchanged between police forces across the EU and the use of biometric identification systems to track people’s movements and increase policing of undocumented migrants and racialised people. 

• Mandatory reporting obligations imposed on public authorities – such as those that have been imposed on the social welfare office in Germany since the 1990s, or those under discussion in Sweden. 

• Racial profiling – Checks and controls based on appearance, language or perceived origin, rather than individual conduct, leading to discriminatory targeting of racialised communities, already a routine practice in Europe. 

This threat is real and immediate. The European Commission’s proposal explicitly promotes detection measures and, in December last year,  Member States endorsed a position calling for even more harsh policies, including police raids on private homes to locate undocumented migrants.² Moreover, most of the political groups in the European Parliament, from the liberals to the far right, have presented amendments that support the mandatory inclusion of detection measures.  

Detection measures create fear, discrimination and persecution, and break social ties and communities. They deter people from accessing essential healthcare (including pregnancy-related care, chronic disease treatment and vaccinations), as well as education and social services; trap people in situations of violence, exploitation and abuse; erode trust between professionals and those they serve; enable racial profiling and systemic discrimination; and violate fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. 

These risks have been raised at international level. On 26 January, 16 UN Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts, and Working Groups, addressed a joint letter to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU, warning that the proposed Deportation Regulation may impose reporting duties on professionals, discouraging access to essential services and undermining fundamental rights. 

Embedding detection measures in binding EU legislation would fund, legitimise, expand and standardise them across Europe, and legitimise illegal practices like racial profiling. This would consolidate a punitive system, fuelled by far-right rhetoric and based on racialised suspicion, denunciation, detention and deportation. Rather than protecting fundamental rights, the EU is on course to codify an ideology of criminalisation that targets people simply because of their administrative situation.  

Europe knows from its own history where systems of surveillance, scapegoating and control can lead. 

We call on policymakers, public authorities, public service workers, civil society organisations and communities across Europe to reject detection in all its forms, and to mobilise against policies that criminalise people on the basis of their residence status and erode fundamental rights for all. 

The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union must listen to these concerns and reject the Deportation Regulation. 

TOTAL SIGNATORIES: 83

European networks/organisations:

1. Access Now
2. Border Violence Monitoring Network
3. Bridge EU
4. Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
5. Eurochild
6. European Disability Forum
7. European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU)
8. European Network on Statelessness (ENS)
9. European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network
10. European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA)
11. European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA)
12. ILGA-Europe
13. International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network (IPPF EN)
14. Jesuit Refugee Service Europe
15. Missing Children Europe
16. Médecins du Monde International Network
17. Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) 
18. Statewatch
19. Trans Europe and Central Asia (TGEU)

National organisations:

1. 11.11.11
2. Africa Advocacy Foundation
3. Algeciras Acoge
4. AlgorithmWatch
5. Apoyo Positivo
6. ARCI
7. Asociación Evangélica Nueva Vida
8. Asociación Madrileña de Salud Pública (AMaSaP)
9. Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI)
10. Caritas diocesana di Pesaro
11. Centro Sociale Ex Canapificio
12. Cesida (National Coordinator of HIV and AIDS)
13. CIRÉ
14. Collective Aid
15. Community Rights in Greece
16. Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS)
17. Convenzione dei Diritti nel Mediterraneo
18. Coordinamento Fiorentino contro il Riarmo
19. Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA)
20. COSPE
21. Defence for Children International Czechia
22. Defence for Children International Italy
23. Défense des Enfants International Belgique
24. Dynamo International
25. Europasilo – Rete Nazionale per il Diritto d’Asilo
26. Federación SOS Racismo
27. Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
28. Fondazione Città Solidale ETS
29. Forum Per Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose
30. Fucina per la Nonviolenza
31. Fundación Cruz Blance
32. Fundación Entreculturas
33. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
34. Gruppo Melitea
35. Institute Novact for Nonviolence
36. International Child Development Initiatives
37. Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
38. Iuventa – Jugend rettet
39. Jesuit Refugee Service Portugal
40. La Cimade
41. Missing Voices (REER)
42. Mission Lifeline International e.V.
43. Mobile Info Team
44. Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes de Extremadura
45. Mujeres Supervivientes
46. M.V. Louise Michel
47. Oxfam Novib
48. Pilotes Volontaires
49. Progetto Accoglienza e Integrazione Un sole per tutti
50. Red Acoge
51. Refugees in Libya
52. Rete Vesuviana Solidale
53. Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
54. RiVolti ai Balcani – Diritti in Movimento
55. Sea-Watch e.V
56. Sharazade – Cultura e spettacolo senza frontiere
57. SolidarityNow
58. Stichting LOS
59. Studio legale D’apruzzo
60. The Swedish IMER Association
61. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights FTDES
62. VERLATA SOC. COOP. SOCIALE A R.L.
63. WILPF ITALIA
64. WISH (Women in Solidarity House)