Government criticized for working methods regarding terrorism list

Amnesty International has said that the findings of the National Ombudsman about the working methods surrounding citizens on the terrorism and extremism list is "particularly serious.” The report, which was released on Tuesday, pointed out that the government is not doing enough to look after the rights of people that are on the counterterrorism, extermism and radicalization list, or the cter-registration.

Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen wrote in the report that the cter system is complex and opaque. Civilians are usually not aware that they are on the terrorism list and with which institutions and countries their information is being shared. Sometimes, they are also wrongly included on the list.

“Supervision and legal protection must be well organized. Especially, because the government cannot be completely transparent when it comes to national security. This is not the case at the moment,” Van Zutphen stated.

Amnesty is very concerned about the “uncontrolled surveillance of civilians by various government agencies civilians who are usually not suspects.” The cter registration that the ombudsman has investigated is only one of the examples regarding this practice according to the human rights organization.

“The government does not only damage the person’s rights with this uncontrolled practice but also the prestige and authority of that same government."

People who are put on such a list can end up in trouble unexpectedly, for example, on vacation when they are not allowed into their destination or end up detained abroad. The ombudsman does not know how many people this situation pertains to.

Aleid Wolfsen, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) agreed with Amnesty’s comments. “The ombudsman is correct in his findings,” said the AP chairman. “He pointed out a painful fact.”

Although supervision is "neatly arranged" on paper, in practice, there is little or no supervision, according to Wolfsen. As a result, it is not known whether everything is going well with the cter registrations and whether no errors are being made.

People can report to the AP if they think they are on the list. The regulator is permitted to look into the authorities' data, in that case. Due to a lack of resources, supervision is now only reactive and not active. This means that if a complaint is received, it is looked into, but no periodic checks of the cter registrations take place.

However, in all those years, AP has only had one complaint from someone who may have been on the terrorism and extremism list. The ombudsman and Wolfsen agree that this is because most people do not know they can go to the AP in these cases. Wolfsen knows that the authority should provide much more active information, but the budget is not significant enough to do so.

The ombudsman is suggesting more active supervision, according to Wolfsen. The chairman agrees with this wholeheartedly. He believes that the supervisor should regularly check the cter registrations to ensure there are no irregularities.

“This would also have a deterrent effect,” said Wolfsen. The police would then become aware that supervision is taking place.