When the "nationality" box becomes a suspicion

Starting in 2013, the Dutch tax administration used a system that assigned a higher fraud risk to childcare benefit applicants who did not hold Dutch nationality. Tens of thousands of parents, about 26,000 according to several media outlets, were wrongly accused. Many were ordered to repay considerable sums. Debts, job losses and separations followed.

On December 17, 2020, a parliamentary committee published its report, entitled "Ongekend onrecht," unprecedented injustice. On January 15, 2021, Mark Rutte's government resigned and promised at least €30,000 to each affected parent. In December 2021, the Dutch data protection authority fined the tax administration €2.75 million for processing dual nationality in a discriminatory way. Amnesty International spoke of "xenophobic machines."

The lesson goes beyond the Netherlands. An algorithm does not invent its suspicions: it takes the ones it is given, then applies them on a large scale, without a face. It was thanks to parents who refused to stay silent, to journalists and to parliamentarians that the system was exposed.