Protection the rights of undocumented migrants : PICUM priorities ahead of the 2024 EU elections

Racial discrimination and xenophobia run through key aspects of EU migration laws and policies, their underlying objectives, the way they are organised and implemented, and their results in practice. The former UN Special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance Tendayi Achiume has noted that “ethno-nationalism” is an important driver and manifestation of racial discrimination in citizenship, nationality and immigration laws, policies and practices. Not only do the EU’s laws and policies fail to address the link between migration and racial and ethnic discrimination, but may even increase racial and ethnic profiling. Law enforcement and migration enforcement bodies in the EU systematically use racial and ethnic profiling. A 2014 Fundamental Rights Agency study showed that 79% of surveyed border guards at airports rated ethnicity as a helpful indicator to identify people attempting to enter the country in an irregular manner before speaking to them. The European Parliament must ensure that EU legislation and policies – including on migration - are nondiscriminatory and lead to increased racial and ethnic profiling. In particular, it should call for a recast of the Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC so that the directive would include discrimination based on nationality (now it only refers to “ethnic and racial origin”) and would apply to law enforcement, immigration and border agents (who are currently excluded from its scope). The Parliament should also call on the Council to adopt the 2008 proposal to implement equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. Finally, it should call for a renewal of the EU Anti-racism Action Plan beyond 2025 which commits to specific actions to address the link between structural racism, violence and migration, including in the EU’s asylum and migration policy