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, detection measures proposed by the Commission could result in (and indeed some of them are already happening in various EU member states):

• 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 year¹, 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: 93

European networks/organisations:

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

National organisations:

25. 11.11.11
26. Africa Advocacy Foundation
27. Algeciras Acoge
28. AlgorithmWatch
29. Apoyo Positivo
30. ARCI
31. Asociación Evangélica Nueva Vida
32. Asociación Madrileña de Salud Pública (AMaSaP)
33. Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI)
34. Caritas diocesana di Pesaro
35. Centro Sociale Ex Canapificio
36. Cesida (National Coordinator of HIV and AIDS)
37. CIRÉ
38. CNCD-11.11.11
39. Collective Aid
40. Community Rights in Greece
41. Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS)
42. Convenzione dei Diritti nel Mediterraneo
43. Coordinamento Fiorentino contro il Riarmo
44. Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA)
45. COSPE
46. Defence for Children International Czechia
47. Defence for Children International Italy
48. Défense des Enfants International Belgique
49. Dynamo International
50. Europasilo – Rete Nazionale per il Diritto d’Asilo
51. Federación SOS Racismo
52. Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
53. Fondazione Città Solidale ETS
54. Forum Per Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose
55. Fucina per la Nonviolenza
56. Fundación Cruz Blance
57. Fundación Entreculturas
58. Fundación de Solidaridad Amaranta
59. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
60. Gruppo Melitea
61. Hermes Center
62. Institute Novact for Nonviolence
63. International Child Development Initiatives
64. Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
65. Iuventa – Jugend rettet
66. Jesuit Refugee Service Portugal
67. La Cimade
68. Missing Voices (REER)
69. Mission Lifeline International e.V.
70. Mobile Info Team
71. Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes de Extremadura
72. Mujeres Supervivientes
73. M.V. Louise Michel
74. Pilotes Volontaires
75. Progetto Accoglienza e Integrazione Un sole per tutti
76. Red Acoge
77. Red de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe
78. Refugees in Libya
79. Rete Vesuviana Solidale
80. Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
81. RiVolti ai Balcani – Diritti in Movimento
82. Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH)
83. Sea-Watch e.V
84. Sharazade – Cultura e spettacolo senza frontiere
85. SolidarityNow
86. Stichting LOS
87. Studio legale D’apruzzo
88. The Swedish IMER Association
89. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights FTDES
90. VERLATA SOC. COOP. SOCIALE A R.L.
91. Watch the Med AlarmPhone 
92. WILPF ITALIA
93. WISH (Women in Solidarity House)

1. Article 6, Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council, establishing a common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the Union, and repealing Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, Council Directive 2001/40/EC and Council Decision 2004/191/EC.  ↩︎
2. Article 23(a), “Investigative measures” Council General Approach on the Return Regulation proposal.  ↩︎