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Blog - 11.02.26

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

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FOR ORGANISATIONS: SIGN THE STATEMENT HERE

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: 111

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. Europe Must Act
  11. European Network Against Racism (ENAR)
  12. European Network on Independent Living
  13. European Network on Statelessness (ENS)
  14. European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network
  15. European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA)
  16. ILGA-Europe
  17. International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network (IPPF EN)
  18. Jesuit Refugee Service Europe
  19. Migreurop
  20. Missing Children Europe
  21. Médecins du Monde International Network
  22. Oxfam
  23. Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
  24. Quaker Council for European Affairs
  25. Statewatch
  26. Trans Europe and Central Asia (TGEU)
  27. Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) Network

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. Associació del Garraf per la República
  10. Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI)
  11. Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI)
  12. Caritas diocesana di Pesaro
  13. Centro Sociale Ex Canapificio
  14. Cesida (National Coordinator of HIV and AIDS)
  15. CGT Ofpra
  16. Circuit asbl
  17. CIRÉ
  18. Civil Rights Defenders
  19. CNCD-11.11.11
  20. Col·lectiu Agudells 
  21. Collective Aid
  22. Community Rights in Greece
  23. Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS)
  24. Convenzione dei Diritti nel Mediterraneo
  25. Coordinamento Fiorentino contro il Riarmo
  26. Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA)
  27. COSPE
  28. CSC Brussels
  29. Defence for Children International Czechia
  30. Defence for Children International Italy
  31. Défense des Enfants International Belgique
  32. Dynamo International
  33. Emmaus Italia ETS
  34. Europasilo – Rete Nazionale per il Diritto d’Asilo
  35. Federación SOS Racismo
  36. Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
  37. Fondazione Città Solidale ETS
  38. Forum Per Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose
  39. Fucina per la Nonviolenza
  40. Fundación Cruz Blance
  41. Fundación Entreculturas
  42. Fundación de Solidaridad Amaranta
  43. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
  44. Gruppo Melitea
  45. Hermes Center
  46. Humanity On the Move Association
  47. Institute Novact for Nonviolence
  48. International Child Development Initiatives
  49. Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
  50. Iuventa – Jugend rettet
  51. Jesuit Refugee Service Portugal
  52. KISA – Action for Equality, Support, Antiracism 
  53. La Cimade
  54. Missing Voices (REER)
  55. Mission Lifeline International e.V.
  56. Mobile Info Team
  57. Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes de Extremadura
  58. Mujeres Supervivientes
  59. M.V. Louise Michel
  60. No Name Kitchen
  61. Ocalenie Foundation
  62. Plataforma de Infancia
  63. Pilotes Volontaires
  64. Progetto Accoglienza e Integrazione Un sole per tutti
  65. Red Acoge
  66. Red de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe
  67. Refugees in Libya
  68. Rete Vesuviana Solidale
  69. Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
  70. RiVolti ai Balcani – Diritti in Movimento
  71. Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH)
  72. Sea-Watch e.V
  73. Sharazade – Cultura e spettacolo senza frontiere
  74. SolidarityNow
  75. Solidary Wheels
  76. Stichting LOS
  77. Studio legale D’apruzzo
  78. The Swedish IMER Association
  79. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights FTDES
  80. Verlata SOC. COOP. SOCIALE A R.L.
  81. Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen
  82. Watch the Med AlarmPhone 
  83. WILPF Italia
  84. 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.  ↩︎