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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: 94

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:

  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. CNCD-11.11.11
  15. Collective Aid
  16. Community Rights in Greece
  17. Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS)
  18. Convenzione dei Diritti nel Mediterraneo
  19. Coordinamento Fiorentino contro il Riarmo
  20. Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA)
  21. COSPE
  22. CSC Brussels
  23. Defence for Children International Czechia
  24. Defence for Children International Italy
  25. Défense des Enfants International Belgique
  26. Dynamo International
  27. Europasilo – Rete Nazionale per il Diritto d’Asilo
  28. Federación SOS Racismo
  29. Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
  30. Fondazione Città Solidale ETS
  31. Forum Per Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose
  32. Fucina per la Nonviolenza
  33. Fundación Cruz Blance
  34. Fundación Entreculturas
  35. Fundación de Solidaridad Amaranta
  36. Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
  37. Gruppo Melitea
  38. Hermes Center
  39. Institute Novact for Nonviolence
  40. International Child Development Initiatives
  41. Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
  42. Iuventa – Jugend rettet
  43. Jesuit Refugee Service Portugal
  44. La Cimade
  45. Missing Voices (REER)
  46. Mission Lifeline International e.V.
  47. Mobile Info Team
  48. Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes de Extremadura
  49. Mujeres Supervivientes
  50. M.V. Louise Michel
  51. Pilotes Volontaires
  52. Progetto Accoglienza e Integrazione Un sole per tutti
  53. Red Acoge
  54. Red de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y del Caribe
  55. Refugees in Libya
  56. Rete Vesuviana Solidale
  57. Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
  58. RiVolti ai Balcani – Diritti in Movimento
  59. Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH)
  60. Sea-Watch e.V
  61. Sharazade – Cultura e spettacolo senza frontiere
  62. SolidarityNow
  63. Stichting LOS
  64. Studio legale D’apruzzo
  65. The Swedish IMER Association
  66. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights FTDES
  67. VERLATA SOC. COOP. SOCIALE A R.L.
  68. Watch the Med AlarmPhone 
  69. WILPF ITALIA
  70. 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.  ↩︎