Etxerat's primary activities are to support those family members, and to campaign to defend the rights of their imprisoned and exiled relatives.

[10] Etxerat's main campaign is to end the French and Spanish Governments' policies of dispersing people imprisoned due to their activity within the Basque separatist movement to prisons all over France and Spain.

[11][12][13] Etxerat claims that this forces the family members of those prisoners to travel huge distances, often hundreds of miles, just to visit their relatives for a couple of hours.

[21] In 2014 the Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, said that the policy does the prisoners a "big favour" by helping them in the process of reintegration into society.

[44][45] In addition to these transport costs the Basque Government has given Etxerat grants so that it can undertake projects, such as improving the educational opportunities of the prisoners.

[31][46] These grants are sometimes withdrawn or reduced by the Spanish Government official responsible for oversight of the Basque Country ('Delegado del Gobierno en el País Vasco').

[8] The arrested individuals were accused of coordinating a "unity of action" policy for the prisoners, but were released without charge after 4 days.