COA shared sensitive data of asylum seekers with the police for years

For years, the Central Shelter for Asylum Seekers shared the information of asylum seekers with the police. Information was shared structurally about, among other things, religion and ethnicity. The exchange has since been discontinued.

The data came from the National Aliens Hub of the COA. In addition to names, ages and countries of birth, this node also contains data on the ethnicity and religious beliefs of asylum seekers. These are extra sensitive data that also have an extra protected status under the privacy law. Certain organizations involved also received medical data from asylum seekers. Minister Grapperhaus of Justice and Security writes about the data exchange in a letter to the House of Representatives, which has not yet been published, but which NRC already has in its hands.

The data ended up with the police due to a design error in the COA system. After an intake interview, asylum seekers had to sign a declaration of consent stating that their information was shared with the police and the other organisations. Asylum seekers could only tick ‘yes’ on that form. In addition, asylum seekers had to sign the declaration of consent before they were entitled to legal aid, so they often could not claim legal aid. Because it is such sensitive data, it is not allowed to collect and pass it on without the consent of the data subjects.

In the meantime, COA would have taken measures to remedy the error. The organization is said to have abolished the consent form in the summer of last year after it realized that the method could cause problems. Because the data was obtained illegally, it must be removed from the databases of the police, but according to NRC it is not known whether this has already happened.

It is not the first time that the COA has had problems with data from asylum seekers. Last year, the agency accidentally put a spreadsheet online with names, dates of birth and ID numbers.