Netherlands: Court prohibits racial profiling in police stops

discrimination
Netherlands: Court bans “racial profiling” in police stops

In the Netherlands, a court has ruled that border police are not allowed to check people based on the color of their skin. This approach is discriminatory. Several human rights groups and citizens had complained about this.

The Dutch military police are no longer allowed to conduct “racial profiling” at border controls. A court in The Hague found on Tuesday that the Royal Dutch Marechaussee, which is also responsible for border protection, is discriminatory in border controls. With “racial profiling” people are checked more frequently by the police simply because of external, ethnic characteristics such as the color of their skin.

Court: Police controls in the Netherlands are discriminatory

The court in The Hague found that people entering the Netherlands were disproportionately stopped and checked at border controls because of the color of their skin. The military police are no longer allowed to do this in their work. Contrary to what the police claim, skin color alone is not relevant enough as a criterion to say anything about a person’s nationality. The court described this type of discrimination as “particularly serious”. Those affected would be stigmatized as a result. “These Dutchmen cannot feel accepted,” the verdict said, as reported by the Dutch daily De Telegraaf.

Several human rights groups such as “Amnesty International” had filed complaints against the actions of the police together with affected citizens. With its judgment, the Court of Appeal in The Hague overturned an earlier decision from 2021, in which the allegations had still been dismissed.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs described the verdict as a “historic breakthrough”. The Dutch military police had announced that it still had to be examined how the court’s decision would affect their work in practice.

Sources: political, De Telegraaf, Mirror, Federal Agency for Civic Education