Leeuwarder Courant, Jan 5, 2012: 'Digital border control is delayed'

"The introduction of a controversial new camera system at Dutch border crossings has been delayed. The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee's detection system, known as @migo-boras, was supposed to read the number plates of all passing cars and store them digitally from this year. The system is now likely to be introduced only from this summer. This is according to a letter from immigration minister Gerd Leers sent to the House of Representatives.

Leers promises in the letter that the new cameras will be used for a maximum of six hours a day and 90 hours a month.

However, recently released documents published on the website Sargasso show that this was not the original plan for the camera surveillance. Reports show that the detection system, whose development cost some EUR90 million [sic] cost, is designed to continuously record passing vehicles.

The system would also alert the military police if a suspicious travel pattern of a particular vehicle is detected.

The introduction of the camera system evokes a lot of resistance.

According to human rights lawyer Vincent Böhre of the Privacy First foundation, Leers' plan "puts the axe to the Schengen Agreement", the European treaty that guarantees the free movement of people in Europe.

However, according to the minister, there are no provisions in the Schengen Convention on camera surveillance in the border area where the military police patrols."

Source: Leeuwarder Courant Jan 5, 2012, p. 5.