What do return policies mean for affected people? Read on for some key highlights from our latest webinar.
Across Europe, return policies shape everyday life for undocumented migrants long before the deportation takes place. Fear becomes constant – fear of being detained, of being seen, of speaking up. This fear quietly erodes mental health and forces people into invisibility.
Many are pushed into informal and exploitative work, cut off from decent housing and basic support. People delay going to the doctor, avoid public spaces, and stay silent about abuse or crime. Survival often means strategic compliance: staying under the radar at all costs. Even social networks, while essential lifelines, can become sources of risk. The harm of return policies lies not only in deportation itself, but in years of uncertainty, exhaustion, and loss of control over one’s life – impacts that can echo across generations.
At the same time, this is not the whole story.
In places like Belgium, harsh national policies coexist with powerful local resistance. Undocumented migrants, civil society groups, and some municipalities are working together to provide housing, including by occupying empty buildings. These spaces offer more than shelter – they are places of solidarity, political organising, and dignity. Cities such as Ghent and Liège show that local action can foster social cohesion, even when national policies exclude.
Against this backdrop, the EU’s proposed Return Regulation moves in the opposite direction. It reinforces a punitive and coercive approach, expanding detention and deportation powers while failing to address why people become undocumented in the first place. Provisions allowing home raids, entry into shelters, and searches of personal belongings and electronic devices raise serious fundamental rights concerns. Alarmingly, this proposal was introduced without meaningful consultation or a proper fundamental rights assessment – a lack of transparency that has already been criticised by the EU Ombudsperson following a complaint by PICUM and other NGOs.
If Europe wants systems that protect rather than harm, it must stop governing through fear. Return policies should not condemn people to lives lived in hiding — they should be replaced by approaches rooted in rights, dignity, and inclusion.
Special thanks to the amazing speakers:
🎙️ Francesca Cimino, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
🎙️ Isabelle Carles, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
🎙️ Habon Ibrahim, Migrant Youth Advisory Board of MORE project
🎙️ Silvia Carta, PICUM
