Dutch activists lose ethnic profiling case, vow to appeal

A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that border police can use ethnicity as one of the criteria for selecting people for checks at the border, a legal defeat that rights activists immediately vowed to ap

A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that border police can use ethnicity as one of the criteria for selecting people for checks at the border, a legal defeat that rights activists immediately vowed to appeal.

The decision came in a case brought against the government by two citizens, backed by rights groups, who argued that they were singled out for checks by officers from the country's Marechaussee police force because of the colour of their skin.

Lawyers told the court that in the case that one of the plaintiffs, Mpanzu Bamenga, a city councillor from Eindhoven who was born in Congo, was selected for a check as he returned to the Netherlands on a flight from Rome in part because he “didn't look Dutch”.