Alamara Khwaja Bettum, Executive Director of Statewatch, says of the proposals:
“Increasing surveillance, policing, and racial profiling will only fuel racism and a far-right agenda – not reduce migration. If accepted, these proposed measures will undermine the most basic of civil liberties to disastrous ends, which is the real threat we should be addressing.”[1]
This statement was coordinated by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants
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 year[2], Member States endorsed a position calling for even more harsh policies, including police raids on private homes to locate undocumented migrants.[3]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: 88
European networks/organisations:
Access Now
Border Violence Monitoring Network
Bridge EU
Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
Eurochild
European Disability Forum
European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU)
European Network on Statelessness (ENS)
European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network
European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA)
European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA)
ILGA-Europe
International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network (IPPF EN)
Jesuit Refugee Service Europe
Missing Children Europe
Médecins du Monde International Network
Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
Quaker Council for European Affairs
Statewatch
Trans Europe and Central Asia (TGEU)
National organisations:
11.11.11
Africa Advocacy Foundation
Algeciras Acoge
AlgorithmWatch
Apoyo Positivo
ARCI
Asociación Evangélica Nueva Vida
Asociación Madrileña de Salud Pública (AMaSaP)
Association for Integration and Migration (SIMI)
Caritas diocesana di Pesaro
Centro Sociale Ex Canapificio
Cesida (National Coordinator of HIV and AIDS)
CIRÉ
Collective Aid
Community Rights in Greece
Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà (ICS)
Convenzione dei Diritti nel Mediterraneo
Coordinamento Fiorentino contro il Riarmo
Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA)
COSPE
Defence for Children International Czechia
Defence for Children International Italy
Défense des Enfants International Belgique
Dynamo International
Europasilo – Rete Nazionale per il Diritto d’Asilo
Federación SOS Racismo
Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
Fondazione Città Solidale ETS
Forum Per Cambiare l’Ordine delle Cose
Fucina per la Nonviolenza
Fundación Cruz Blance
Fundación Entreculturas
Fundación de Solidaridad Amaranta
Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
Gruppo Melitea
Hermes Center
Institute Novact for Nonviolence
International Child Development Initiatives
Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
Iuventa – Jugend rettet
Jesuit Refugee Service Portugal
La Cimade
Missing Voices (REER)
Mission Lifeline International e.V.
Mobile Info Team
Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes de Extremadura
Mujeres Supervivientes
M.V. Louise Michel
Oxfam Novib
Pilotes Volontaires
Progetto Accoglienza e Integrazione Un sole per tutti
Red Acoge
Refugees in Libya
Rete Vesuviana Solidale
Right to Protection Charitable Foundation
RiVolti ai Balcani – Diritti in Movimento
Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH)
Sea-Watch e.V
Sharazade – Cultura e spettacolo senza frontiere
SolidarityNow
Stichting LOS
Studio legale D’apruzzo
The Swedish IMER Association
Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights FTDES
VERLATA SOC. COOP. SOCIALE A R.L.
Watch the Med AlarmPhone
WILPF ITALIA
WISH (Women in Solidarity House)
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/16/eu-deportations-plan-ice-style-enforcement-rights-groups-warn
[2] 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. ↩︎
[3] Article 23(a), “Investigative measures” Council General Approach on the Return Regulation proposal. ↩︎
