The municipality of Nuenen has leaked address details of residents who had objected to the arrival of a new, temporary asylum seeker center. This concerns 1059 addresses that were accidentally forwarded to 52 residents of Nuenen. A municipal spokesperson confirmed this to Omroep Brabant.
The new asylum center should be located at the Pastoormast, close to the RKSV Nuenen football club. 200 asylum seekers would live there.
The 52 residents had registered for the hearing on the objections, which would take place in about a week and a half. In preparation, the municipality sent them some relevant documents.
One of those documents contained an overview with a distance criterion for local residents who live 260 meters or further from the planned asylum seekers’ center. A list of all 1059 addresses of objectors was added to that overview. These addresses can be traced back to individuals. “That was not necessary, but should have been further anonymized. It was a human error,” a municipal spokesperson acknowledges.
‘Very annoying’
The municipality says it has already informed the Dutch Data Protection Authority. The data breach is now also on their own site. “We have contacted the people who received the pieces and asked them not to distribute them further and to remove them.”
The municipality calls it ‘very annoying’ that it happened. “But you can’t do much more than this.” The leak came to light after a resident reported it on Friday morning.
“We are sorry that this happened,” the municipality wrote to the 52 residents. “We have now tightened up the process for sending documents to the objection committee so that this cannot happen again in the future.”
Lists in app groups
“So you have also objected?” a neighbor asked a Nuenen resident who wanted to remain anonymous. “I think that’s a pretty bad thing.” According to him, the lists of addresses of objectors circulate in various app groups. He also received the list himself, both via WhatsApp and by email. “I know exactly who has objected. You can see the entire list, which address is and is not. This is extremely painful, because you do not share this openly with everyone. I find this cringe-worthy.”
De Nuenaar thinks it is sloppy of the municipality. “The fact that others know that I have objected and have an opinion about it is not a problem for me, but I understand that people are concerned about it. You can be approached by the neighbor. There are many who did it anonymously, but they are no longer anonymous. The damage has already been done.”
He hopes that solidarity in the village will remain. “I hope it doesn’t bother people. There will always be people for and against.”
