SIRI, which processes applications for Danish work and residence permits on behalf of the immigration ministry, released a press statement on Tuesday relating to the matter.

The agency was last autumn contacted by a member of the public who said that a staff member at SIRI had accessed their information without authorisation.

Following this, SIRI identified the employee in question in November 2022.

This resulted in confirmation that the person had searched for information and accessed data which were unconnected to their job role.

The information included personal registration (CPR) numbers, income details, family relations and decisions on immigration cases.

SIRI said in the statement that as many as 3,300 personal files may have been accessed by the staff member in the period from January 2021 until November 2022.

The agency has contacted members of the public affected by the issue, it said.

The issue has also been reported to the Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet).

“This is a very regrettable matter which I take very seriously. This is a case of an employee who has grossly abused their access to personal information and whom we have fired and reported to police,” director of SIRI Trine Rask Thygesen said in the statement.

“We will do everything we can to stop it happening again. We will therefore also review our existing procedures and guidelines to see whether we can do more to prevent misuse of access to personal information,” she said.