Marechaussee searches slightly fewer devices at Schiphol

The Marechaussee searched slightly fewer devices at Schiphol last year. In particular, the number of telephones and SIM cards that the Marechaussee searched fell. This largely concerns devices of travelers.

In 2013, the Marechaussee searched a total of 1,807 devices at Schiphol, according to documents requested by researcher Rejo Zenger who works at Bits of Freedom. In 2012, that was 1,850 devices. The number of examined devices at Schiphol has been declining since 2011; in particular, the number of telephones examined has been decreasing since that year. While more than 1900 telephones were the subject of research in 2011, there were 1718 in 2012 and only 1642 last year. The number of hard disks, audio and video players and other memory carriers investigated did increase slightly.

These are devices that have been examined by the Marechaussee at Schiphol. Customs is part of this, but the figures are not broken down. “It’s largely about investigations by customs,” Zenger says. It may also concern equipment of Schiphol personnel and packages intercepted by the Marechaussee.