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Privacy statement by the Ministry of Asylum and Migration

1. Introduction

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration works to promote a safer and more just society both by providing people with legal protection and when necessary intervening in their lives. For this reason, you are entitled to expect that we handle your personal data in a careful and secure manner.

This privacy statement explains how the Ministry of Asylum and Migration deals with personal data.

Below we aim to answer the following questions.

  • What is personal data?
  • Why does the Ministry process your personal data?
  • How do we deal with your personal data?
  • When do we share your data?
  • How can you contact us about your rights?

This privacy statement relates to all personal data the Ministry of Asylum and Migration needs to use in the course of performing its statutory tasks. For information about the processing of your personal data by a specific organisational unit of the Ministry, please contact the agency, department or service concerned.

This privacy statement is updated regularly.

Learn more about your privacy when using this website.

2. What is personal data?

Personal data is information that directly concerns a specific individual or can be traced back to him or her. Examples of personal data include addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.

Sensitive personal data

Some personal data is particularly sensitive, because its collection and use can have a big impact on someone’s life. Data concerning someone’s race, religion or health, for example, or someone’s citizen service number (BSN). This kind of data enjoys special protection under the law. Likewise, children’s personal data is always sensitive, and is therefore always subject to special protection.

Criminal record or judicial data

The Ministry also processes personal data when performing tasks in the context of the justice system. Such data concerns criminal records, criminal offences, suspected offences and security measures. This kind of personal data also enjoys special protection.

Sometimes, the processing of personal data is subject to special legislation, such as the Judicial Data and Criminal Records Act and the Police Data Act. When necessary, these laws allow the Ministry to exchange personal data between, on the one hand, parts of its organisation and, on the other, European police and institutions of the justice system. The aim may be to prevent or solve crimes, for example, or to prosecute or punish criminals or maintain public order. For this reason, the rights of individuals may temporarily be more limited than in cases where the personal data concerned does not relate to the criminal justice system. The Data Protection Authority is responsible for supervising compliance with this legislation.

For more information about personal data, please visit the website of the Data Protection Authority (in Dutch).

3. Why does the Ministry process your personal data?

The Ministry processes personal data for various purposes and statutory tasks. Below are a few examples.

  • Collection and payment of fines: The Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB) processes personal data for this purpose.
  • Deciding whether to grant or deny an asylum residence permit: the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) processes personal data (including sensitive data) when people apply for asylum. Often such people are subject to persecution because of their political convictions or because they belong to a certain religious or ethnic minority.
  • In the screening process for certificates of conduct or name changes: the Integrity and Screening Agency (Justis) screens people and organisations to check there are no ethical issues in their past. Justis processes personal data as part of this process.

Every ministry unit can explain how they deal with personal data when performing their tasks, why they do so and how they ensure that such data is used properly.

4. How do we deal with your personal data?

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration applies a number of principles when processing personal data and takes measures to ensure it handles data in a reliable, fair and careful manner.

Data protection officer

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration has appointed a data protection officer. An independent appointee, the data protection officer checks whether the Ministry applies and complies with the rules laid down in the Personal Data Protection Act and (as of 25 May 2018) the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Dutch Data Protection Authority (in Dutch) is responsible for supervising the application of privacy legislation.

Guiding principles

Purpose and legal basis

The Ministry processes personal data only if it has a legal basis for doing so. We ensure that personal data is processed only for the specific purpose for which it was collected.

The least amount of data possible

The Ministry never processes more personal data than is strictly necessary. If possible we process less data or none at all.

Minimising infringement of privacy

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration ensures that any infringement of privacy is not disproportionate to the purpose for which the data was collected. If we have a choice of different types of personal data we could process for a given purpose, we always opt for the data that constitutes the most minimal infringement of privacy.

Retention periods

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration keeps your personal data:

  • only for as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was collected;
  • only for the length of time required by the Public Records Act; and
  • never longer than is permitted under the law.

Measures

Reliability, integrity and confidentiality

The Ministry employs a range of measures to ensure that your personal data is dealt with in a reliable, fair and careful manner.

All personal data is treated in confidence. This means your data can be processed only by persons with both the proper authority and a duty of confidentiality.

Personal data is protected effectively. At a minimum we observe the rules and standards on information security laid down by central government.

The Ministry makes agreements about security measures with external parties such as software providers and data centres. We also check whether external parties stick to these agreements.

5. When do we share your personal data?

In certain cases the Ministry is authorised, and sometimes even required, to provide data and information to or request them from other organisations (public or otherwise). Example: Imagine you are caught on camera running a red light. The photo will feature your car’s number plate (this is personal data). Using this data, the Central Fine Collection Agency (CJIB) will request your name and address from the Road Transport Agency (RDW).

6. Your rights

When it comes to your personal data, you have several rights (in Dutch), such as the rights to access and rectify your data.

If you wish to know what personal data of yours we have processed you can submit a request to this end. You must submit this request to the organisation within the Ministry that processed the data in question. Click the link for an overview of organisational units of the Ministry of Justice and Security (in Dutch).

If it should turn out that your details are incorrect, incomplete or irrelevant, you can submit an additional request for your details to be rectified or supplemented.

If you have general questions about data protection at the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, please contact our data protection officer. You should address your questions for the attention of the Data Protection Officer at either fg@minjenv.nl

or:

Ministry of Justice and Security / Ministry of Asylum and Migration
Postbus 20301
2500 EH Den Haag
The Netherlands

For more information about your rights or to lodge a complaint,  please contact the Data Protection Authority.