Photos of Foreigners Are Stored in Dutch Police Database
An RTL Nieuws investigation has uncovered that the passport photos of millions of non-Dutch citizens residing and working in the Netherlands are being automatically included in a police database, regardless of whether the individuals have a criminal record or not. The database, which features 8 million photos, includes the passport photos of 6.5 million internationals living in the Netherlands, such as refugees, expats, and students.
The database is used in conjunction with another database, which lists 1.2 million Dutch citizens and non-citizens who have been identified as suspects or have been convicted of a crime, and contains 2.7 million photos. The police use the photos in the database for CATCH, a facial recognition system designed to trace suspects, which has been in use since 2016. However, the police must obtain permission from an examining magistrate to search the database, which they say has only occurred twice in 2022.
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security has defended the database, explaining that it follows Dutch law and that strict rules are followed to ensure its use. However, experts, including the Dutch Data Protection Authority, have raised concerns about the legality of the database, arguing that the police are breaking the law by including photos of innocent individuals in the database.
The concerns have been echoed by non-Dutch citizens living in the Netherlands, who have expressed confusion and frustration with the system. Some have questioned why their photos are being included in the database and why they are being treated differently from Dutch citizens.
