BOOKLET: RACIAL PROFILING PRACTICES AT EU INTERNAL BORDERS

Brussels, Belgium – 5 March 2026

Racial profiling carried out in the name of migration control is not an occasional mistake at Europe’s borders. It is a systemic feature of policing, border control, and migration management that disproportionately targets racialised people across EU member states. As policing and immigration enforcement increasingly merge, discriminatory stops, ID checks, searches, and harassment are becoming normalised, with serious consequences for dignity, safety, and belonging.

In our new joint publication with the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), we documented how racialisation operates at and through Europe’s internal borders – with testimonies from the Basque Country, the French-Italian border, Germany, and Croatia.

This booklet reveals how racialisation operates not only at border crossings but throughout everyday life, shaping who is treated as “suspect” and who is allowed to move freely. Drawing on first-hand testimonies and focusing on border regions in the Basque Country, France, Germany, and Croatia, it shows how EU migration governance can intensify harm at internal borders—affecting migrants and people of colour living in Europe alike. Read the booklet to understand how these practices work, how they’re legitimised, and why ending racial profiling must be a priority both at borders and beyond.

📖 Read our booklet below!