Ethnic Profiling

Whistleblower reveals Netherlands’ use of secret and potentially illegal algorithm to score visa applicantsIn 2022, a report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded that the agency’s internal culture was riddled with structural racism. Some employees recounted being described as “monkeys” while others were continually asked to disavow terrorist attacks. In response, the foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra promised reform. “This is not who we want to be,” he said.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not alone one among Dutch institutions that have been in the spotlight for structural racism. The Netherlands prides itself on automated decision making to reduce bias. But in the last two years of reporting from Lighthouse Reports have revealed wide-scale use of algorithmic risk profiling systems across the Netherlands.New, leaked documents obtained by Lighthouse Reports and NRC reveal that at the same time Hoekstra was promising change, officials were sounding the alarm o

https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/ethnic-profiling/