Absolute nightmare of an experience at Brussels airport passport control. Likely getting profiled because the birthplace on my French passport says Turkey and the chip isn’t working (which is why I was in the manual control lane to begin with).
The joys of being white passing in racist countries. You’re fine until they see you might be a bit too Brown inside.
Now sitting in a room with other Brown and Black folks, waiting (and they have my passport).
Just spoke with two women being held in the same room as me. Also of Turkish ethnicity, both Belgian citizens. Not being allowed into Belgium.
Brussels airport is racially profiling EU Citizens.
Please share widely.
Ethnic profiling happened (happens?) in The Netherlands as well, but a district court allowed it. See the judgment below (obviously in Dutch, so might want to auto-translate). Kmar = Dutch border control by military police.
https://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:10283
It appears @amnestynl has appealed the case in a class action lawsuit (WAMCA):
https://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2022:1316
UPDATE: appeal court overruled primary court
@aral Sorry to hear about your experience. Have you considered filing a complaint? Hope the two women are allright..
@lightspeed The Dutch border police is still racially profiling people. Amnesty has appealed, the court will decide on 14 Feb. (However, it's not a class action/WAMCA, the two citizens who have brought the case to court together with Amnesty and other orgs don't claim damages, all they want is a prohibition on racial profiling.)
(Technical reply back to @gwenvaneijk: despite it's name the WAMCA covers all class action procedures, wether damage is claimed or not. It's a cover-all act for collective procedures that combines the possibilities to claim e.g. a declaration of right and *can* include damages. See the appeal judgment I cited and second bullet point under 2 on page 1 of the explanatory memorandum that accompanied the WAMCA).
@lightspeed Ah yes I see now, I hadn't looked into the specifics of the new law yet, as collective claims for declaratory and/or injunctive relief were already possible, my mistake. Just wanted to stress that the Amnesty case is not about monetary damages. Thanks for clarifying!
As if the court knew I mentioned the case, the appeal court just published a press statement that they will publish their judgment next week on February 14th. Those who are interested (and understand Dutch) can watch a livestream.
Den Haag, 07 februari 2023 Het gerechtshof Den Haag doet op dinsdag 14 februari a.s. uitspraak in een zaak die is aangespannen tegen de Nederlandse Staat over etnisch profileren van de Koninklijke Marechaussee.
Congratulations Gwen! The appeal court apparently overruled the primary court and decided the Koninklijke Marechaussee is guilty of ethnic profiling.
The Koninklijke Marechaussee is guilty of ethnic profiling, the Court of Appeals in The Hague ruled on Tuesday. The policing service can not check people based on external characteristics such as their skin color. “This is a serious form of discrimination,” the appeals court ruled, NU.nl reports.
By the way: the state secretary of justice just confirmed in parliament that the Dutch cabinet did not request the Kmar to stop using the profiles that contain ethnicity, because the state secretary answered to parliamentary questions the Kmar will be requested to stop using ethnicity as a result of the judgment today.
Which obviously means they weren't asked to stop using ethnicity up until now.
Even more intriguing is point 7.1.1 in the judgment. The Kmar never stopped after the judgment in 2021 according to the appeal court:
https://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2023:173
Aral Balkan
lightspeed
Gwen van Eijk