You won't make friends with @migo-Boras

Last night, EenVandaag broadcast a critical reporting out about the new border control system @migo-Boras. You can watch the entire report below. Besides Privacy First's Vincent Böhre, you will also see investigative journalist Dimitri Tokmetzis in the broadcast. To our knowledge, Tokmetzis is the first journalist to write an article about @migo-Boras, early 2011 on the website Sargasso. Then journalist Bart de Koning explicitly mentioned the system in his speech during the CPDP international congress in Brussels. After that, however, things remained quiet for a long time, until in late October 2011 a detailed article about appeared in NRC Next and NRC Handelsblad. A month later, several civil society organisations (including notably Privacy First) expressed their Concerns about @migo-Boras at UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Netherlands will comment on this in May 2012 have to answer to the UN. Also, the system (and the lack of legislation surrounding it) is now under investigation by the European Commission, mainly at the instigation of the German government. The German media are highly critical of @migo-Boras and so far pay more attention to it than the Dutch. Should the system soon be introduced unchanged, the Dutch government could be taken to court for violation of 1) the right to privacy and 2) the Schengen Convention, among others. This can be done directly at the European Court of Justice (by the European Commission or by Germany) or first at the national level, at the Dutch courts (by individual motorists and/or Stichting Privacy First).

A recent article by Tokmetzis with key government documentation on @migo-Boras can be found HERE. This documentation was obtained by Tokmetzis through an appeal to the Public Access Act (Wob). It would behoove the Dutch government not to resort to further Wob procedures and make the remaining documents public on its own initiative (or at the request of the House of Representatives). If not, going to court in this regard also remains ...

Updates: Also read the article on @migo-Boras by Dr Jaap-Henk Hoepman under the apt title "With a friend like that, you no longer need an enemy...".
More government documentation on @migo-Boras from 2008 appeared in early March 2012 HERE Following a Wob request to the Ministry of Defence. Click HERE for information on further developments and an interview with Privacy First on @migo-Boras dated 1 August 2012.