A Swedish newspaper has revealed that police hold an illegal database of the Roma population living in Sweden. The database includes details of over 4000 Roma individuals. Many of those on the database do not have a criminal record. The database contains social security numbers and addresses of Roma people and includes information about family connections between individuals on the database. The police have stated that the database was set up in 2009 in order to investigate criminal activity. Since then the database has been expanded to include individuals with links to criminals. The database also includes details of children.
It is illegal to classify data by ethnicity under Swedish law. It has also been suggested that the database violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to private and family life).
The President of the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) Rudko Kawczynski, wrote to the Swedish Minister for Justice to express his “astonishment” at the police policy. He said, “I am aware that the police often works in a difficult context and that the everyday reality of combating crime, including terrorism, poses real challenges that need to be met. However, we are convinced that racism and racial discrimination, including racial profiling, cannot constitute a possible response to these challenges”. He also highlighted that ethnic profiling violates recommendations from the European Commission on Racism and Intolerance and decisions of the UN Human Rights Committee. The ERTF called for a thorough investigation and for legal proceedings to be brought against those responsible. Click here to read ERTF’s letter.
Sweden’s Minister for EU Affairs, Birgitta Ohlsson, called the registry "nasty, unethical, unacceptable and illegal". She said "Data must not be used this way because of a person's ethnical origin ... If we stand up for human rights in Europe we must also have clean sheets back home. Information on the registration of Roma people is disgusting.”
Click here to read an article on Euractiv.