Dawn raids on private homes were meant to be an American story. Now police in several EU countries can search homes to enforce deportations, and Belgium may follow. Migrant-rights groups fear Europe’s new return rules will spread the practice further.
National authorities can now, under certain conditions, enter someone’s home to enforce a deportation. The power comes from the EU’s Return regulation, adopted this year, and migrant-rights groups say some countries are already applying the practice under national law.
Raids and returns
“Raids in public places and workplaces are carried out, I would say, routinely in various countries,” said a spokesperson for the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), an umbrella group defending migrants’ rights. France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau mobilised 4,000 officers in 2025 alone. They checked bus and train stations nationwide for undocumented migrants. The UK reported record raids on nail bars, car washes, barbers and takeaways in January 2026. Entering a private home, however, is a different, more sensitive threshold.
Germany already allows this under national law. Authorities can enter a private home to enforce a deportation, though only under strict conditions. Austria has a similar rule. Under its Foreign Police Act, officers can enter and search a specific address if there is concrete evidence that a person subject to a deportation order is staying there. Austrian authorities reported more than 7,000 deportations in the first half of 2026. Both laws predate the EU’s own push for tougher returns.
Belgium eyes the same step
Belgium could be next. Lawmakers are considering a new legal basis for so-called visites domiciliaires, home visits to enforce removal decisions. Under the draft, police could enter a residence only with a judge’s authorisation, and only in cases linked to public order or national security. The target would be someone with an enforceable removal order who is not cooperating. As of September 2026, the bill has not been passed. Parliament’s home affairs committee is still consulting experts before moving forward.
PICUM warned a year ago that member states had backed provisions allowing authorities to search migrants, their homes and other ‘relevant premises’ as part of return enforcement. They said the move opened the door to police raids of private homes. The provision could also affect places where migrants receive support, including shelters and humanitarian organisations.
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Same same but different
The comparison is politically loaded and the European and US systems remain very different. Still, the concern is based on a real change in the EU’s Return regulation. As adopted, it allows national authorities, under certain conditions, to search a third-country national and, with the required authorisation, their residence or other ‘relevant premises’.
Raids in public places and workplaces are carried out, I would say, routinely in various countries.
— PICUM spokesperson
The EU insists the measures must be necessary and proportionate, with fundamental-rights safeguards in place. But searching a residence is now explicitly part of the toolbox available to national authorities enforcing a return. That is precisely PICUM’s concern: a system built to make returns more effective could end up bringing immigration enforcement deeper into private homes.
