16 June 2021
Dutch News, 15 June 2021.
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"Dutch court asked to rule border police ethnic profiling illegal
A Dutch campaigner and local politician is taking the border police force KMar to court on Wednesday over an ethnic profiling case dating back to 2018, which could have EU-wide implications.
Mpanzu Bamenga was singled out for special questioning at passport control at Eindhoven airport after returning from Rome where he had attended a conference. Dressed in a suit, he was walking fast, other indicators, it later transpired, for resembling a ‘Nigerian money smuggler’.
When he asked why he had been pulled over Bamenga was told that they were looking for criminals and refugees. He thought he looked like someone the police were looking for, but when a another black man and woman with children were also taken out of the queue, he realized it was a clear case of ethnic profiling.
‘It made me angry,’ he told RTL Nieuws. ‘Ethnic profiling is not about me personally, it affects many people.’
Bamenga, a councillor in Eindhoven on behalf of D66, made a formal complaint about the incident. But on Wednesday he is taking it further, by asking the courts to draw the line and ban ethnic profiling altogether."
Source: Dutch News, 15 June 2021
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