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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... More >

Court backs KLM in water bottle theft case

State airline KLM acted legally when it sacked a worker with 25 years’ service for taking a bottle of mineral water from a plane, appeal court judges have ruled. The 54-year-old was dismissed by KLM Catering Services in 2019 after a colleague saw him open a bottle of water and pour it into his flask. He went to court claiming unfair dismissal, arguing he should be reinstated or paid more than €480,000 in compensation. KLM Catering Services said he should... More >

Health boards to organise get-a-jab day

Regional health boards will be using mobile vaccination centres in a one day vaccination campaign to boost the national vaccination rate and to persuade those who are reluctant to have the jab. The buses will take to the streets in a couple of weeks’ time, a health ministry spokesman told NU.nl, but an exact day has not yet been decided on. The buses will specifically target places where few people have been vaccinated, such as deprived neighbourhoods in the bigger... More >

Amsterdam starts €160,000 tourism campaign

Amsterdam has launched its first 2021 campaigns to encourage tourists to return – the right kind of tourists, that is. In a briefing for councillors, head of economic affairs Victor Everhardt said that the city would be investing €100,000 in one campaign advertising such attractions as street art, Europe’s highest swing and fishing for plastic to clean up canals. Another €60,000 is being invested, he says, by businesses and cultural partners. The campaigns are intended to encourage tourism that will... More >

Coronavirus support open to fraud: NRC

The lack of checks on coronavirus support requests last year allowed fraudsters to get away with millions of euros, with little prospect of clawing back the cash, investigators with the public prosecution department have told the NRC. Marjolein Verwiel and Nelleke Klip are particularly critical of the TVL ruling, which allowed companies to claim help with paying their fixed costs. The government paid an advance, often running into tens of thousands of euros, based on information that companies filled in... More >

Philips recalls breathing devices

Philips has issued a recall notice for between three million and four million sleep and respiratory care devices because of possible health risks attached to foam used in the equipment to dampen noise. Philips said that it had carried out tests and determined that there ‘are possible risks’ centred on the foam which ‘may degrade into particles which may enter the device’s air pathway and be ingested or inhaled by the user’. The foam may also leach certain certain chemicals... More >

Omtzigt exit 'will not impact on talks'

Pieter Omtzigt’s departure from the Christian Democrats at the weekend will not make the coalition talks more difficult, party leader Wopke Hoekstra insisted on Monday. Omtzigt broke with the CDA after 18 years as an MP after a 76-page memo, in which he criticised the party’s structural problems and the way he had been treated by the leadership, was leaked to the media. The 47-year-old has been signed off work with stress since May 25, but will now return to... More >

Ease events licencing process, MPs say

MPs are calling on the cabinet to make it easier for companies to organize festivals, fun fairs and cultural activities this summer, now that the coronavirus infection rate is shrinking. If this continues to be the case, ‘we should give plenty of space to all those people who want to give shape to the summer,’ VVD parliamentarian Pim van Strien told broadcaster RTL Nieuws. ‘I would like the licencing process to be made quicker and easier, so that we can... More >

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