At least 60 British nationals in the Netherlands have been sent a letter by the IND immigration service which should have been sent to someone else, according to an analysis of reports made to DutchNews.nl.

In one case all four members of the same family had been sent someone else’s letter. In another, a man contacted DutchNews.nl on behalf of his elderly mother-in-law who, he said, is worried about what has happened to the letter destined for her.

One man said he had been coincidently sent a letter addressed to his best friend who lived in a different city, and in another case, the recipient and addressee have now been in touch on social media.

DutchNews.nl reported on Monday that the IND had mistakenly sent a number of letters apologising for a previous data breach to the wrong people and appealed for other victims to come forward.

The problems centre on a letter sent by the IND to all British citizens registered in the Netherlands at the end of January about their post-Brexit rights. In around 7,000 cases, the agency failed to include letters or numerals denoting the recipient’s exact house number.

But in a second, more serious data breach, the letter apologising for the earlier mistake has been sent to dozens of wrong addresses.

The IND is investigating how the letters got switched and has also reported this second leak to the data protection authority.

If you have been sent the wrong letter, please contact editor@dutchnews.nl.