Joint letter: 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.  

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SIGNATORIES

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