From today, anyone who applies for a passport in the Netherlands will have to give his or her fingerprints, which will in turn be stored on a national database. Human rights campaigners are up in arms over the measure, which they say is an unnecessary infringement of people's privacy.

Listen to an interview with Miek Wijnberg of Vrijbit

Biometric passports
According to rules introduced by the European Commission, EU member states are required to introduce biometric passports with a chip containing the owner's digital information, including a facial image and fingerprints. But the Netherlands has gone a step further than any other country by storing that data on a central computer system.

The Dutch government ruled that all passports issued from now on must include the holder's fingerprint as part of its anti-terrorism programme. But the Vrijbit civil rights group has launched legal action at the European Court of Human Rights, claiming the data contained in the fingerprints will be shared with several organisations.

Two objections
Chairwoman Miek Wijnberg told Radio Netherlands the group has two main objections to the introduction of the new passports.

"It's against our human rights that the government takes our bodily data as kind of property, they should not use it for registration [in the Netherlands] or other purposes. Secondly, its very dangerous. IF your fingeprints or your data from the databases are stolen and used by people you don't know, it's irreparable damage."

Biggest risk

The police and intelligence services will be able to use the database to access passport holders' details, which they say is vital in order to catch criminals and prevent the spread of terrorism.

But Vrijbit says it is the storage of the data that poses the biggest risk, because citizens will no longer have control over their personal data.

Last Friday the European Court of Human Rights issued a temporary verdict enabling the Dutch government to go ahead with the new law. Vrijbit is now waiting for a final judgment on the issue. Miek Wijnberg says she hopes the ECHR will rule in favour of scrapping the measure.

"All the people who refuse to give their fingerprints can't even function normally in society anymore, becuase there are other laws that order you have to show your current identification. It's impossible to get one without fingerprints."