Platform for Undocumented Migrants - PICUM

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Platform for Undocumented Migrants - PICUM

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We work for a world where everyone can enjoy their human rights, whatever their migration status.

The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) is a European network of over 160 organisations working to ensure social justice and human rights for undocumented migrants. We seek a world where human mobility is recognised as a normal reality, and where all people are guaranteed their human rights and have a dignified standard of living, regardless of migration status. With our network and partners, we research and advocate for evidence-based, holistic and humane responses to the realities of undocumented migrants and to people who want to come to Europe to work or for other reasons. We provide a platform to engage policy-makers and the public at the international, European, national, and local levels. Our work is grounded in principles and values of social justice, anti-racism and equality. We apply an intersectional lens to our work, recognising overlapping systems of oppression that affect people with insecure residence status, and are committed to strengthening participation of people with lived experience in our work. Member organisations include human rights organisations, migrants’ rights organisations, migrant-led and grassroots organisations but also organisations focusing on children’s rights, women’s rights, access to health care, legal aid and access to justice, trade unions, and faith-based organisations.

12/02/2026

The new EU Deportation Regulation is set to escalate immigration detention and deportations for everyone, including children.

We must stop this. Spread the word.

01/12/2025

🔥 NEW 🔥 What does regularisation mean for people and society? Our new report tells you what 50 years of research have shown. Check it out!

What changes when someone finally secures a residence permit?
Do they find safer jobs? Does their housing improve?
How are their children affected?
And what does this mean for our societies, economies, and governments?

These are the questions at the heart of our new report on the impact of regularisation, drawing on over five decades of research from Europe and the Americas.

We found that regularisation has profound and wide-ranging positive impacts - some expected, others surprisingly far-reaching. They include:

✔️ Improvements in wellbeing and mental health
✔️ Better working conditions and opportunities for skills development – both for the regularised worker and their colleagues
✔️ Stronger family and community stability
✔️ Tangible benefits for governments through increased contributions
✔️ Even unexpected gains, like higher birthweights among children born after their parents’ regularisation

At the same time, our research highlights important limitations and gaps. Most existing studies focus on time-limited programmes, making it harder to fully understand the impacts of ongoing mechanisms. The design of regularisation measures - such as high fees or burdensome procedures - can also undermine outcomes by pushing people into debt or insecurity.

Gains can be short-lived if people cannot access secure, long-term residence status. Regularisation measures must be inclusive and fair, and they must lead towards secure status to truly harness its compounding benefits.

Despite these challenges, one conclusion is clear: Regularisation works. It changes lives, strengthens communities, and benefits society as a whole.

What we need is political will to make this happen.

📖 Read the full report in English onhttps://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-impact-of-regularisation-measures-on-people-institutions-and-wider-society-EN.pdf

Also available in:

🌍 French:https://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-impact-of-regularisation-measures-on-people-institutions-and-wider-society-FR.pdf
🌍 German:https://picum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-impact-of-regularisation-measures-on-people-institutions-and-wider-society-DE.pdf

19/08/2025

When they tell you "we need to fight irregular migration".

23/07/2025

If people move "irregularly" it's because broken systems and fear-mongering politicians only give them this option.

That's the problem to fix.

01/07/2025

💌 The European Parliament is getting ready to vote on a new law that threatens those of us who help others in need. Let's stop this.

The draft Facilitation Directive is meant to counter migrant smuggling, but it leaves the door open to the criminalisation of solidarity with people in an irregular situation.

Over the last months, we have joined forces with other NGOs and ice-cream company Ben and Jerry's to raise awareness about this law and its impact on people.

As the European Parliament's civil liberties committee gets ready to vote on this draft law, you can tell those in charge to exempt solidarity from criminalisation and protect our right to help.

How?

Ben and Jerry's have put together email forms which you can send to the MEPs responsible for this file.

Simply click on the links under the MEPs you want to email.

France:
💌 MEP Fabienne Keller (shadow rapporteur for Renew Europe, centre)
on https://activism.benjerry.com/page/172194/action/1

Germany:
💌 MEP Birgit Sippel (rapporteur for S&D, centre-left)
💌 MEP Lena Düpont (shadow rapporteur for EPP, centre-right)
💌 MEP Erik Marquardt (shadow rapporteur for The Greens/EFA, centre-left)
(all together) on https://activism.benjerry.com/page/172199/action/1

The Netherlands:
💌 MEP Malik Azmani (Renew Europe, centre)
💌 MEP Jeroen Lenaers (EPP, centre-right)
(both together) on https://activism.benjerry.com/page/172072/action/1

Solidarity should be celebrated, not criminalised.
Let's make our voices heard.

11/06/2025

🔔 Want to gain experience on human rights in migration?
We're hiring for 3 paid traineeships!

Who we're looking for:

💙 2 Advocacy Trainees
📌 background research
📌 drafting papers
📌 attending and reporting on events
📌 following relevant EU policy agendas
📆 September 2025 - February 2026
🌍 Brussels, Belgium
⏰ Deadline: 22 June

💚 1 Events and Comms Trainee
📌 events organisation
📌 administration
📌 producing social media content
📌 updating website content
📆 September 2025 - February 2026
🌍 Brussels, Belgium
⏰ Deadline: 25 June

‼️ Unfortunately, the work permit system for applying from outside of Belgium doesn't apply to this internship programme. While we continue to advocate for fair regular pathways for recruitment, we regret that candidates who will need to apply for a work permit from outside of Belgium aren't eligible for this internship programme.

📝 All info on the positions and how to apply on https://picum.org/join-us/

21/05/2025

When we feel hopeless, we think about all the people who keep working for a kinder and fairer Europe. We were quite a few at our General Assembly ❤️

Europe's shift to the far right is fuelling xenophobic migration policies and turning social rights into tools of enforcement. Human rights are under attack, with growing criminalisation of migrants and racialised communities, including undocumented people. Detention and deportation increasingly trump protection and inclusion.

Across the EU and national levels, new laws and reforms clash with international rights standards. Civic space is shrinking, and rights defenders face mounting legal, financial, and political pressure - including harassment and prosecution for offering humanitarian aid or defending migrants’ rights.

And yet we keep going. Another Europe is possible, but it will only come about if we continue working towards it.

At our 2025 General Assembly, we explored collective strategies to resist and respond to such an increasingly hostile context. We discussed areas for common advocacy, building solidarity across movements, and reinforcing the role of civil society in defending the rights and dignity of all migrants, regardless of status.

We also welcomed 10 new members to our network:

❤️ TheShelter - student's Refuge (Cyprus)
🩷 Defence for Children International Italia (Italy)
🧡 Sienos Grupė (Lithuania)
💛 Here to Support (Netherlands)
💚 Vluchtelingen in de Knel (Netherlands)
💙 Konsorcjum Migracyjne (Poland)
🩵 Azil u Srbiji Asylum in Serbia - Centar za zaštitu i pomoć tražiocima azila (Serbia)
💜 Aculco Madrid (Spain)
🤎 Movimiento de Mujeres Migrantes (Spain)
🤍 Humans Rights Legal Project (UK)

We're honoured and proud to be working with organisations and people who never give up on the dream for a kinder and fairer Europe for all.

08/05/2025

🍦 Ice-creams and human rights? 🍦 We're happy and proud to announce our new cooperation with Ben and Jerry's ❤️

In the last months, we started working with ice-cream and social impact company Ben and Jerry's to protect two of the most human things we share: moving for a better life and helping others in need.

In the EU today, people can risk jail time because they helped others in need. Or because they crossed a border without the proper documentation.

A new EU law (the EU Facilitation Directive), meant to counter migrant smuggling, risks instead bringing more people to trial.

With other NGOs, we're joining forces with Ben and Jerry's to ask the European Parliament amends the law and protects people from this criminalisation.

Read more about our cooperation on Ben and Jerry's websites in:
🌍 Germany https://www.benjerry.de/blog/2025/04/solidaritaet-schuetzen
🌍 The Netherlands https://www.benjerry.nl/wat-is-nieuw/2025/04/solidariteit-is-geen-misdrijf
🌍 France (coming soon!)
..and stay tuned for more updates from this work!

18/12/2024

They're our friends, colleagues and neighbours. Undocumented people are already part of our societies and our governments should recognise this too.

We want to say it once more with a new video for this International Migrants Day.

A few months ago, we brought together three pairs of friends and colleagues from Belgium, Spain and Switzerland. Each pair was composed of one person who lived undocumented and one who never did.

We recorded their conversations as they told us about their past and how their relationship changed as the person who was undocumented finally got a residence permit.

We saw them talk and laugh and be shy and be moved. We saw people.

Those of us who live undocumented are already part and parcel of our societies. It's high time our governments recognised this and regularised their status so we can all live in our communities without fear.

Regularisation works, and it's the right thing to do.

PS Huge thanks to the powerful and loving work of , as always ❤️

23/10/2024

We’re appalled by the growing support, from many member states and even the Commission, around the idea of sending people to centres outside the Union so they can be deported from there. Aside from being a logistical and financial nonsense, it’s a cruel system that breaches international and EU law and puts people at risk of being abused with no clear options to get justice and remedies.

The Italy-Albania deal that many EU countries are now praising is an inhumane, absurd and costly system that breaches international human rights obligations. We expect and demand better from a Union that’s supposedly founded on values of human dignity and human rights.

📷 © Arlington National Cemetery

Adresse

Rue Du Congrès/Congresstraat 37-41
Brussels
1000

Téléphone

+3228836812

Site Web

http://www.picum.org/

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